Taylor brought new insights on food justice

Shakara Taylor & her daughter, came from Lansing to share their vision of food justice.

On Monday April 25, Shakara Taylor led about a dozen OKT constituents and community members through an interactive evening that focused on creating food justice in our communities. As she spoke to “Diagramming Your Food System,” she shared that our current industrial food system is not broken, but rather working just like it is meant to, i.e., as a capitalist creation it serves very well as a profit making machine. Like LaDonna Redmond has asserted in her TEdX talk, Taylor stressed that there has never been a just food system in the US as, from the beginning, it was built on stolen land and by exploited human labor. (In the past that meant African slaves; today it means migrant workers of Latino and Afro-descent.)

Taylor asked the group to call on their memories of community and family as a way to help envision healthier food access for all. Some shared stories of parents and grandparents who grew and preserved their own foods — or got foods from relatives’ farms. Others spoke of a time when neighborhood families got together to gather, prepare and can foods together. A younger participant recalled growing up entirely on packaged, processed foods. In conclusion, Taylor asked each group member to share their thoughts on what the current food system looks like in contrast to what they would like it to look like.

If you missed out, you will have another opportunity to experience this enriching presentation. Taylor will repeat this program on July 11 and present another food justice program as the featured speaker for OKT’s November Women of Color Cook Eat & Talk.

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Earth Day Spring Tree Tour on Friday

Apr20

Tiny OKT Tree Finder_Page_3 Earth Day Spring Tree Tour
Friday April 22
6 – 7:30 p.m. Garfield Park Lodge
334 Burton St. SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49507

As part of OKT’s food justice mission, OKT urban forester, Laura Casaletto, will again lead the free Earth Day Spring Tree Tour through Garfield Park. During this foraging adventure, participants will munch leaves and nibble flowers, for example, spruce tips, the nectar inside tulip tree flowers, black locust flowers, Japanese knotweed shoots, redbud blossoms and perhaps entire linden trees! “We’ll certainly find something nice underfoot to add to your Mother’s Day breakfast in bed,” Laura says. “And, you’ll get a little booklet to help you recall what you learned.”

After the outdoor tour, the group will gather back in the lodge for foraged refreshments and a brief dialogue on other in-season, urban edibles that grow in our area.

Amazing Women of Color to lead OKT events

Apr19

Lila_Cabbil

As part of its Women of Color strategy, OKT is bringing some amazing women to Grand Rapids to educate and inspire. If you made it to our February Women of Color Cook, Eat & Talk, you heard Lila Cabbil, president emeritus of the Rosa Parks Institute, speak on white

allies against racism via teleconference.

Lila Cabbil will be here in person May 21 to facilitate a daylong Anti-racism Summit. Lila worked alongside Rosa Parks for decades. She is one of the editors of the book Accountability and White Anti-Racist Organizing: Stories from Our Work. Lila continues to work tirelessly for water justice in Detroit and, now, Flint. In addition, she has worked with Our Kitchen Table staff on team-building.(We are truly blessed!)

Detroit food justice and media activist, Lottie Spady will facilitate OKT’s May 12 Women of Color Cook, Eat & Talk: Herbs from Your Garden as Medicine. A media-maker and herbalist who often lends her talent to OKT’s programs, Lottie spent many years working with the East Michigan Environmental Action Council (EMEAC). She utilizes a framework rooted in popular education, social justice, and social entrepreneurship to help develop relevant 21st century skills that community residents can translate into community and economic development. Lottie will speak about the uses of medicinal herbs we can grow in our own gardens. (OKT food gardeners grow many such herbs!)

On August 11, the Women of Color Cook, Eat & Talk will feature Adela Nieves speaking on “Food as Medicine.” Adela Nieves ADS, CCT, RMT is a Traditional Community Health and Healing Arts Practitioner, currently studying to become a Naturopathic Doctor. Deeply committed to integrative wellness approaches, she practices Acudetox (ear acupuncture), indigenous traditional medicine, cupping therapy, whole person natural care, and Reiki for individuals and groups struggling with addiction, PTSD, stress and trauma. Her philosophy is to support those in their journeys to tell their own stories and define health, healing, and wellness for themselves.

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Next fall, Shakara Taylor will lead the November 10 Women of Color Cook, Eat & Talk. She is also facilitating OKT’s “Diagramming Your Food System” workshops in April and July. A mother, returning generation farmer, educator, activist-scholar and PhD student at Michigan State University Department of Community Sustainability, Shakara explores decolonial pedagogies in the food justice and food sovereignty movements within the communal praxis of black agrarianism. Her personal journey of loving, healing and decolonizing is intimately wedded with working and learning with the land. She is committed to working with communities and using land-based activism to build food sovereign communities.

Join OKT for a Food Justice Dialogue Monday

Apr15

Food Justice Primer
6 – 8 p.m. Monday April 18
Garfield Park Lodge
334 Burton St. SE 49507

Though many know Our Kitchen Table as an organization that helps people grow food, our goal is environmental justice and, hence, food justice. On Monday, our Food Justice Primer will introduce food justice concepts, share how our current food system came to be and present opportunities to dialogue about ways we can build healthy alternatives. Yes, you can expect a PowerPoint and handouts, but the most important part of the class is you. Only as we dialogue together about food justice issues can we build a movement and create change. So, even if you’ve attended OKT’s food justice classes in the past, we hope you will join us again. Please come and share your thoughts, ideas, challenges, work and dreams for creating equitable access to healthy food in every neighborhood and demographic in the greater Grand Rapids area!

OKT staff member, Stelle Slootmaker, is facilitating this dialogue that will be based on

Defining food justice and food sovereignty.
How the current food system came to be and the injustices it promotes (food apartheid, exploitation of workers and animals, environmental destruction, nutrient-poor foods, et al.)
What can we do here in Grand Rapids.

Spring into Activism: OKT April Events

Apr11

Activist, farmer, mother and MSU PhD candidate, Shakara Taylor will lead “Diagramming Your Food System” on April 25.

APRIL 18 6 – 8 p.m.
Food Justice Primer
OKT’s Stelle Slootmaker will facilitate an introductory dialogue on Food Justice at Garfield Park Lodge. Even if you’ve been to OKT Food Justice classes in the past, we hope you will stop by to share your thoughts and how you are working for food justice locally. At the conclusion of the dialogue, you are invited to stick around for a yoga nidra relaxation exercise. (Bring a blanket to lay on if you wish to practice this lying down.)

APRIL 22 6 to 7:30 p.m. Earth Day Spring Tree Tour

Laura Casaletto will take you on a foraging adventure in Garfield Park that teaches you to identify edible trees and shares information on other edibles growing in our neighborhoods. After the 30-minute walking tour, come to the lodge for snacks and dialogue on other neighborhood edibles. The Earth Day Spring Tree Tour remains one of OKT’s most “poplar” events.

APRIL 25 6 – 8 p.m. Diagramming Your Food System wsg Shakara Taylor

Learn to identify how the industrial food system functions in your neighborhood and, despite its limitations, figure out ways to build a healthier food portfolio for your families and community. A mother, returning generation farmer, educator, activist-scholar and PhD student at Michigan State University Department of Community Sustainability, Shakara explores decolonial pedagogies in the food justice and food sovereignty movements within the communal praxis of black agrarianism.

OKT needs you! Join us at the Access Hunger Walk!

Apr7

OKT is still recruiting walkers and volunteers for the Access Hunger Walk — but the deadline is almost here. PLEASE …

Walk with us: Join Team OKT today! You can reply to this email or register directly on the ACCESS website.
Sponsor Team OKT: Check out the sponsorship levels on the ACCESS website.

On Sunday, May 1, the 39^th Annual Access Hunger Walk 2016 will bring more than one thousand walkers and volunteers — including walkers and volunteers from OKT. Funds are distributed for pantry assistance, emergency meals, special project grants for innovative programs addressing hunger and poverty in Kent County and international development programs. OKT’s Southeast Area Farmers’ Market receives funds directly from the Hunger Walk. The walk starts off with a 2 p.m. check-in at Park Church, 10 E Park Place. If you have any questions, email Stelle atOKTable1@gmail.com.