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Youth Food Justice Zine
"We can't talk to youth about farms if they are disconnected from the land, and how do we create better school food without the voices of youth who use the program each and every day." Beatriz Beckford, Co-Director, Grassroots Action Network at WhyHunger
Beatriz is one of four social justice activists that have come together with eighteen young authors to support the creation of the new
Youth Food Justice Zine. The zine, part of WhyHunger's Food Justice Voices series, offers a platform for young food justice activists to share their stories, publish their creative work and express their views on the state of our nation's food system. This compilation of drawings, poems, photos and short stories elevates the voices of youth food justice activists, as well as intergenerational narratives around youth power within the context of the United States.
Launched in conjunction with the national youth Rooted In Community 2015 Leadership Summit, taking place in Detroit, The Youth Food Justice Zine is full of vibrant color, captivating language and the voices of youth across the country. The editors, Miyuki Baker, Beatriz Beckford, Victoria Pozos Bernal, and Ayisah Yusuf, believe that while movements should be intergenerational, youth power and creativity in movements is crucial to collective liberation. The introduction to the zine explains, "Youth are the next leading generation and empowerment and encouragement to be in leadership positions are crucial if our struggle for food justice is to continue."
The zine, compiled from the more than 60 creative works submitted by youth leaders across the country, offers definitions of food justice, perspectives on healthy eating, a guide to being an adult ally, contributor resources and more! The Youth Food Justice Zine is a must read for anyone engaged in the food justice movement and can be found here.
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How to Reclaim The "Commons" at The US Social Forum
This past month, WhyHunger participated in the 2015 US Social Forum, the largest gathering of grassroots organizations and social movements in the US. Inspired by the World Social Forum, which was first organized in Brazil in 2001, the first US Social Forum was held in 2007 in Atlanta, GA, and the second US Social Forum was held in 2010 in Detroit. This year marked the third US Social Forum, and unlike previous years, it was organized in many locations simultaneously, in San Jose, CA, Jackson, MS, and Philadelphia, PA. There were other meetings and actions happening in other areas as well.
WhyHunger co-organized a People's Movement Assembly (PMA) at the Social Forum in Philadelphia, along with the National Family Farm Coalition and other groups, to talk about how to reclaim the "commons," those things like land, water, and seeds that everyone needs for our basic survival, but which are being privatized and concentrated in the hands of a few. We don't always make the connection between access to basic resources like land and access to food in the US - access to food usually means access to income - but in the rest of the world, the connection is obvious: an end to hunger means that more people have access to and control over land, water, and seeds to produce their own food.
Read more here.
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Closing the Hunger Gap (CTHG) is a network of food banks, anti-hunger advocates and food justice activists from across North America working to engage food banks and their constituents in expanding their efforts toward community-based empowerment initiatives. CTHG expects over 500 attendees at the 2015 conference, representing emergency food providers, farms and nonprofit organizations focused on health, education and food justice. The 2015 event aims to build momentum and collective strength among food banks and hunger relief organizations towards a unified national agenda by inspiring each other, building relationships, having critical conversations, sharing practical tools and creating common definitions. Register here.
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Building a Community of Practice Around Hunger and Health
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Friends of the Earth Releases "Spinning Food" Report
Friends of the Earth released their new report that investigates how Big Food and agrochemical corporations are deliberately misleading the public -- and reporters -- on facts about industrial agriculture and organic and sustainable food production.
The report "Spinning Food: How Food Industry Front Groups and Covert Communications Are Shaping The Story of Food" aims to shed light on how the industrial food and agriculture sector is trying to defuse concerns about the real risks of chemical-intensive industrial agriculture and undermine public confidence in the benefits of organic food and diversified, ecological production systems. Read more here.
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Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and SNAP Employment and Training Webinar
The Workforce Innovation & Opportunity Act (WIOA) provides new opportunities for the workforce system and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Employment and Training (SNAP E&T) to work together. The WIOA state planning process provides an opportunity for states to align SNAP E&T with the broader workforce system to help SNAP participants build their skills and find family-supporting jobs. The National Skills Coalition will be hosting a webinar on Tuesday, July 21, 2 - 3:15 p.m. EST to address key principles for education and training investments to produce better outcomes for individuals and local economies. The speakers include: Brooke DeRenzis, Senior State Policy Analyst, National Skills Coalition; Ed Bolen, Senior Policy Analyst, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; Alice Pritchard, Executive Director, Connecticut Women's Education and Legal Fund, and Bill Seedman, Public Assistance Consultant, Connecticut Department of Social Services.
Click here to register.
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Whole Measures for Community Food Projects Webinar
They will discuss how CFP grantees can utilize the Whole Measures CFS frame for their annual Indicators of Success reporting, a collective impact report for all CFPs, as well as a tool for community organizing. They will also look at examples of how previous CFP grantees have implemented a Whole Measures CFS process. This will be an introductory webinar geared towards existing CFP grantees, and prospective grantees. The presenter will be Jeanette Abi-Nader, Executive Director of City Schoolyard Garden and formerly of the Community Food Security Coalition. Jeanette was a member of the working group that created the Whole Measures for Community Food Systems tool.
Click here to register.
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Help Update the Find Food Database
WhyHunger is continuing to expand the comprehensive Find Food database of emergency food providers (food banks, food pantries, food access sites) to include more information about healthy food and nutrition. We need your help! Please verify that your organization's profile is accurate in the database. We have new categories that will better capture the work that organizations are doing to better serve their communities, including addressing hunger and health. If you need to update your record, please email database@whyhunger.org. If your organization is not in the database, please join us here.
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Please verify that your organization's profile is accurate in the database. To update your record, email
database@whyhunger.org. If your organization is not in the database, please join us here.
Our Hotline number has changed to 1-800-5-HUNGRY. Please update your records and find outreach materials here. |
Nourishing Change is meant to encourage conversation and dialogue about transforming communities, community food security and the emergency food system. We want to hear from you! Email us at nourish@whyhunger.org
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Nourish Network for the Right to Food
WhyHunger
505 Eighth Avenue, Suite 2100
New York, New York 10018
212-629-8850
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Contributors: Betty Fermin, Rebecca Lichtenstein, Jessica Powers, and Tristan Quinn-Thibodeau.
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