Nourishing Change - August 2015

August 2015

Building The Movement

Rooted in Community [RIC] Hosts its 17th Annual Youth Leadership Summit

Rooted in Community is a national grassroots network of over 100 youth organizations, whose mission is to empower young people from historically excluded communities to take leadership in their own communities. RIC is a diverse movement of youth and adults working together and committed to fostering healthy communities and food justice through urban and rural agriculture, community gardening, food security and related environmental justice work. RIC has been a long time partner of WhyHunger through the Grassroots Action Network.

The 17th Annual Youth Leadership Summit

took place in Detroit, Michigan in mid-July at Eastern Michigan University. This summit brought together youth from across the country to share stories about their work, learn about Detroit and to engage in direct action with local organizers around Detroit's growing fight against the privatization of water. The name of the summit itself embodied this goal to unite and strengthen the collective: Wage Love, Build Power, Grow Change: Youth Power and Resiliency in Detroit.

With the support of adult allies, the youth had dynamic conversations and learned from each other's skills in youth-led workshops, went on tours to learn about different parts of history and the community at the Oakland Avenue Artists Coalition (OAAC), the Incite Focus L3C Fab Lab and The Boggs Center. There were also tours of urban farms, like the D-Town Farm & the Feed Em/Freedom Garden.

The summit culminated in a solidarity march with the people of Detroit that honored the water organizers who have been resisting the water turn offs in Detroit. The coordination of this national network of young people and adult mentors was no small feat and through a plethora of partners that were thoroughly engaged with the organizers, the passion and dedication to the food justice movement was felt throughout the summit. This summit exemplifies how engaged youth are and by having the space and time to build relationships, they showed that while they might come from different places and have different experiences, they shared similar struggles and a passion for creating lasting social change.

Fight For 15: Next Steps

There's been a lot of talk about the Fight For 15 since Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and now cities in New York have pledged to raise the minimum wage to $15. The fight is being taken to Chicago so the national movement continues. The action items for Fight For 15 are straightforward: a $15 wage for fast food workers and the right to form a union without retaliation.

"Low-wage jobs are the fastest growing jobs in the nation, and they need to pay more so that workers like us can make ends meet, and rebuild the middle class and get the economy working again."

The need for the fight is apparent but there are pros and cons to the plans that are rolling out in each state. Mike Cassidy, a policy associate from The Century Foundation, wrote an article called "Fix For $15: A Closer Look at New Yorkers Minimum Wage Increase for Fast-Food Workers," in which he gives two policy recommendations to improve the New York minimum wage plan that should be taken into consideration and implemented nationwide.

New York's new minimum wage should be continuously adjusted for cost-of-living differences. Prices and purchasing power vary predictably across place and over time. Prudent minimum wage policy anticipates and proactively accounts for this variation.
New York should pursue an across-the-board minimum wage increase that applies to all workers, regardless of industry. Confining the minimum wage raise to a narrow sector is neither economically justified nor is it required by law.

The problems with the focus on just fast food workers are becoming clearer in that having a restricted minimum wage just for chains with 30 or more stores nationally helps only a section of those that work for minimum wage. There is this underlying double standard in thinking that when a fast food worker gets a raise, it diminishes the work that others are doing. This narrow focus is highlighting the differences throughout the system, so if it is not justified or required by law then we must examine why the fight is focusing on one sector and work to expand it to all. It is important for workers to know their rights and know that it is legal to unionize. As these fights are won in city after city, the question becomes: why are there those that want to criticize and vilify workers that are fighting because they are not making a living wage?

Report Back on the Spanish Democratic Revolution

In the Spanish municipal elections in May this year, a tide of social justice movements swept populist groups into local government. Cities across the country, including Barcelona and Madrid, saw unprecedented participation of everyday people in politics. On the eve of the elections, a delegation of 20 New York City-based activists and organizers traveled to Spain, to learn firsthand how Spanish communities were using social movements to take command of their living conditions, and to pave the way for an electoral insurgency and a Spanish democratic revolution.

In early July, the delegation gathered at CUNY's Murphy Institute to report back on their experiences to an audience of about a hundred people. Employing some of the techniques they had picked up on their travels, the organizers split the talking points evenly between themselves, and encouraged questions and group discussions. Read more here.

News

Take Action to Support the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act

The Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act (CNR) sets the policy and funding structure for all of the federal school meal and child nutrition programs, including School Breakfast (SBP), National School Lunch (NSLP), Child and Adult Care Food (CACFP), Summer Food Service (SFSP), Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and others. These programs ensure that low-income children have access to healthy and nutritious foods.

Reauthorization provides an opportunity to improve and strengthen these programs. The current Act is set to expire on September 30th, 2015.

Congress is home for recess and will not return to DC until September 7th. The Food Research & Action Center has detailed what legislation individuals and organizations can ask their Member of Congress to endorse.

They include:

Read more here to learn about these bills and endorse these important nutrition bills here.

Hunger & Health

The Healthy Food Bank Hub

The Healthy Food Bank Hub, a microsite of FeedingAmerica.org, is a platform that provides nearly 500 recipes, handouts, research, videos, educational materials, curriculum, posters, etc. developed by professionals for professionals working with food insecure communities and individuals. The Hub's plethora of resources showcases existing best practices and nutrition initiatives, and engages health and nutrition professionals to help fight hunger while promoting health. Feel free to sign up for their HealthyFoodBankHub.Org Quarterly Digest,

which will highlight the Hub's newest features, content, collaborators and targeted tools and resources. Recognizing that nutrition education from a peer or trained community member is more effective in some communities .

WhyHunger's Cooking Up Community includes culturally appropriate nutrition education models, including the use of promotoras and peer educators. The guide gathered and synthesized resources and case studies about innovative nutrition education programming from organizations around the country. The programs and activities highlighted within the guide provide examples and inspiration for emergency food providers to expand or strengthen their programming, forge new partnerships and collaborate with others in order to fulfill their commitment to improve the health and well-being of their community.

Are Hospital Farms the Next Big Thing in Healthcare Reform?

There are many organizations that are working at the intersection of hunger and health and there is one hospital that claims that hospital farms might be the next step in this work. St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania has been running a farm on their grounds since 2014.

"Our mission is to provide great healthcare and part of that is educating patients about the benefits of a plant-based, organic diet," explains Ed Nawrocki, president of the Anderson campus. "One of the best ways to do that is to lead by example and show them how delicious produce grown on our farm tastes. In its first season, the farm at St. Luke's grew 12 varieties of vegetables on five acres, producing 44,000 pounds of produce that was served to patients, incorporated into the cafeteria menu and sold at weekly farmers markets on several hospital campuses. This year, the farm expanded to 10 acres and 30 varieties of fruits and vegetables.

The article "Are Hospital Farms the Next Big Thing in Healthcare Reform?" focuses on this hospital-run farm. While it's been well received by patients, there are still challenges and a big one is changing the public perception of healthy food. Read about the farm here.

Resources

The Impact of Racism on the Health and Well-Being of the Nation: A Webinar Series by APHA

The American Public Health Association (APHA) is currently in the midst of hosting a summer webinar series on racism's impact on health. The first webinar, Naming and Addressing Racism: A Primer hosted by APHA President Shiriki Kumanyika and APHA President-Elect Camara Jones touched on how racism leads to inequity, which leads to major disparities in physical and mental health.

Listen to the webinar here and register for the next in the series called 'Unequal Treatment: Disparities in Access, Quality and Care' on August 25, 2015 at 2PM EST here.

"Temptation at Checkout: The Food Industry's Sneaky Strategy for Selling More" Report

An example of a checkout display at Bed Bath & Beyond.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) published a new report, "Temptation at Checkout: The Food Industry's Sneaky Strategy for Selling More," which looks at how retail marketing manipulates food choices. The report makes the case that with high rates of obesity and diseases caused by poor nutrition, the retail environment should be influenced not only by what's economically beneficial to them but also by public health considerations.The report proposes that addressing the retail food environment begins with checkout, where the vast majority of purchases are unplanned. By rethinking checkout, retailers could support their customers' health, rather than pushing them toward choices that harm their health like candy, soda and other junk food and sugary drinks. The report outlines examples of healthy checkout projects across the country and overseas, and gives recommendations for retailers that sell food, so that they can influence their customers' health in a positive way. Read more here.

In This Issue

Rooted in Community [RIC] Hosts its 17th Annual Youth Leadership Summit

Fight For 15: Next Steps

Report Back on the Spanish Democratic Revolution

The Healthy Food Bank Hub

Are Hospital Farms the Next Big Thing in Healthcare Reform?

The Impact of Racism on the Health and Well-Being of the Nation: A Webinar Series by APHA

"Temptation at Checkout: The Food Industry's Sneaky Strategy for Selling More" Report

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

Nourish Network for the Right to Food

WhyHunger

505 Eighth Avenue, Suite 2100

New York, New York 10018

nourish@whyhunger.org

212-629-8850

Contributors: Betty Fermin, Evangeline Graham and Jessica Powers