Breaching The Margins Community Art Project
Sat, May 4, 2019
Drop-in 1:00 – 4:00pm
Archives
We need 20 more walkers for our team!
#Walk4GoodFood
Please join us Sunday for Annual Access Walk for Good Food. This community-wide event brings together several hundred walkers to raise awareness and funds for local and international non-profit organizations working to create food secure communities — including the Southeast Area Farmers’ Market.
You can sign up today! It’s easy! Click here to sign up directly on the Access West Michigan website. Or, email media@OKTjustice.org and ask us to register you.
| For information, visitAccessofWestMichigan.org. |
Access of West Michigan “Feedback XXV” concert and silent auction
As an Access of West Michigan Walk for Good Food recipient agency, OKT invites you to attend its 25th Anniversary Feedback Concert with Local Spins and Founders Brewing Co. Come for some great food, drink, and music – and know that your fun time will benefit Access’s mission to build holistic solutions to poverty.
The lineup for the evening includes:
- The Honeytones at 4:00pm
- The Concussions at 5:30pm
- The Crane Wives at 7:00pm
- A 50/50 raffle, silent auction and door prizes throughout the event.
Below are some of the Silent Auction items – over $1,000 of great items and gift cards.
- “A night in” gift pack
- Kula Yoga class pack
- Edible Arrangements – chocolate covered strawberries
- Orchid Nail Spa Grandville – manicure
- Core Beauty Salon – haircut & blowout
- Integrity Autowash and Quicklube – car wash pack
- Grandville Honda Dealership – oil change pack
- Kurig Coffee Maker**
- Picnic Time Set**
- Gourmet Roasting Pan Set**
- Knife Set**
- Nordicware Baking Set**
- Bagger Dave’s gift certificate
- Dave & Busters gift certificate
- Rise Bakery gift certificate
- San Chez Tapas Bistro gift certificate
Women of Color Convening WSG Remi Harrington
This is the second event in OKT’s 2019 quarterly Women of Color Convening Series.
THE ACCESS WALK FOR GOOD FOOD
#Walk4GoodFood
The Access Walk for Good Food is an annual 5k walk in Grand Rapids. The goal of the Walk is to fund non-profit organizations that address issues of food access and poverty. Our Kitchen Table has been chosen as a recipient agency. Money OKT receives from the Walk will help fund the Southeast Area Farmers’ Market, a walkable neighborhood market in a Grand Rapids neighborhood with little access to healthy, fresh foods.
OKT’s work, and the work of the other 13 recipient organizations aligns with the definition of Good Food, which is food that is:
Healthy (provides nourishment and enables people to thrive)- Fair (no one along the production line was exploited during its creation)
- Affordable (All people have access to it)
- Green (produced in an environmentally sustainable manner)
The work of the recipient organizations ranges from community gardening and urban farming, nutrition programs, food pantries and meal programs, to food justice and community development initiatives. Our collaborative work has a vision of a thriving Good Food system for all people.
The Walk brings non-profit organizations, businesses, congregations, farms, and individuals together to bring awareness of the great work happening in our community to address food access and poverty. By walking together we unite in vision of a Good Food system for all and broaden our shared impact for social good. Over the last 41 years, the Walk has raised over $6 million for dozens of local and international non-profit organizations.
This year, the Walk organizers’ goal this year is to have over 1,000 walkers and raise $110,000. Click here to take part by joining join OKT’s walk team today!
What if everyone in our community could have equal access to food that nourishes, creates good jobs, is affordable, and treats the earth well as it is produced? What if non-profit organizations, businesses, congregations, farms, and individuals could come together to achieve this vision?
We believe it’s possible.
That’s why we walk.
Share the vision.
Walk with us.
Free gardening classes at Baxter Community Center
OKT will not be offering community food growing classes this spring. We are focusing on our Program for Growth at MLK Jr. Leadership Academy and the Southeast Area FArmers’ Market. If you’d like learn how to grow your own food, attend these free classes at Baxter Community Center. Thank you Baxter!
Town hall discussion on Michigan’s clean energy transition
Clean energy town hall discussion
6:30 p.m. Monday, March 18
GVSU Loosemore Auditorium
401 Fulton St. W, 49504
On Monday, March 18, the Michigan League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, Citizens Climate Lobby and Sunrise Movement will join elected officials, clean energy experts and community members for a town hall event to discuss Michigan’s transition to clean energy. Michigan is at a pivotal moment for its energy future as utility companies develop long-term energy plans. The town hall discussion will focus on how Michigan can transition to clean energy and how the community can get involved.
Speakers include:
- Senator Winnie Brinks, Michigan State Senate
- Representative Rachel Hood, Michigan State House of Representatives
- Commissioner Dan Scripps, Michigan Public Service Commission
- Jessica Woycehoski, Consumers Energy
Co-Moderators Cameron Kritikos, CRC Office of Social Justice and Gillian Giem, U.S. Green Building Council – West Michigan Chapter
Participating organizations include Climate Witness Project, LINC Up, Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, Grand Valley State University’s Seidman College of Business Koeze Business Ethics Initiative, and U.S. Green Building Council – West Michigan Chapter.
#Walk4GoodFood
#Walk4GoodFood
The 42nd Annual Access Walk for Good Food supports The Southeast Area Farmers’ Market as well as these local agencies which strive to bring healthier food to our income-challenged neighbors:
New City Neighbors- Asian Community Outreach
- Baxter Community Center
- Hope Farms
- Meals on Wheels Western Michigan
- Access of West Michigan
- SECOM Resource Center
- The Pantry
- Community Ministry Program (Trinity UMC)
- United Church Outreach Ministry
- Westminster Food Pantry
- HQ GR
- St. Marks
Please take a minute, click on the links, and learn about the work being done here in the Greater Grand Rapids Area. Then, sign up to walk or donate today! Look for Team: Our Kitchen Table!
OKT to present at “Cooler/Smarter”
Session 5: A Low Carbon Diet
Thursday, March 7, 7:00 – 8:30 pm
Alger Park CRC, 2655 Eastern Ave SE
Alger Park CRC, 2655 Eastern Ave SE
Register for the free events here or via the Facebook Event.
A workshop series that helps individuals and families get serious about reducing their carbon footprint, Cooler/Smarter has been taking place at different Grand Rapids’ church
OKT’s Lisa Oliver-King will be part of the March 7 session facilitated by Climate Witness Partner and OKT ally, David Koetje. Acording to Cooler/Smarter, “Food accounts for a sizable portion of our emissions. Of course, we all must eat, but with our goal in this series being to reduce our carbon footprints by 20% one of things we can do is to make changes to our diets. An average family of four that decides to make changes to their diets could lower their emissions by as much as three tons annually.”
Remaining sessions include:
- Transportation: Driving Down Emissions, April 25, 7 – 8:30 p.m.Monroe Community Church, 800 Monroe NE.
- Home Heating and Cooling: Home is Where the Heat Is, May 9, 7 – 8:30, Oakdale Park CRC, 961 Temple St SE.
Electrical Use in the Home (Taking Care of Electricity at Home) - What We Buy: The Right Stuff, March 21, 7 – 8:30 pm at Creston CRC, 238 Spencer St NE.
- Money: Impacting the Environment Through Personal Investing, April 11, 7- 8:30 p.m. at Fountain Street Church, 24 Fountain St NE
Past topics included “Getting Serious about Reducing our Carbon Footprint” and “Electrical Use in the Home (Taking Care of Electricity at Home).”
Register for the free events here or via the Facebook Event. Sponsored by the CRC Office of Social Justice.
Deirdre Courtney will present Climate Change and Marginalized Populations
Free!
6 – 8 p.m. Thursday Feb. 21
ICCF Assembly Hall, 920 Cherry St SE, 49506
As climate change makes more impact on our world, those with income challenges—most often people of color—suffer the most. Deirdre Courtney will present Climate Change and Marginalized Populations at ICCF Assembly Hall, 920 Cherry St SE, 49506 from 6 – 8 p.m. Thursday Feb. 21. The free event is co-sponsored by the Citizens Climate Lobby – Grand Rapids Chapter and Our Kitchen Table, as part of its 2019 Women of Color Convenings series.
Courtney, a doctoral teaching assistant in the Institute for Intercultural and Anthropological Studies at Western Michigan University, researches climate change adaptation and mitigation, climate change migration/displacement and cultural anthropology. While the real solution is to take steps to set our world’s climate back in the right direction, the next best plans include finding ways to minimize the harm that is already happening to our marginalized neighbors who are suffering the most.
“The margins are real and make a difference on how and who is affected by climate changes, even in Michigan,” says Jan Strait, co-lead of Grand Rapids Citizens Climate Lobby Chapter. “What do we need to increase our resilience and begin taking action to change the course for ourselves, our families, and our communities?”
OKT will open the event with a healthy cooking demo and tasting. Parking will be available around the building.
Citizens Climate Lobby supports the Bipartisan Climate Solution, HR 763, “Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act”, to drive down carbon pollution and allocate the proceeds directly to the American citizens. All the indicators estimate that in 12 years such an energy policy would reduce carbon emissions by 40%, it’s good for economy to add 2.1 million jobs, saves lives and helps Americans
where it’s most needed.
Our Kitchen Table 