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“Detroit’s Native Son” Yusef Shakur comes to GR Saturday to address gun violence

Apr17

Grand Rapids has experienced an increase in gun violence this year and last. In response, myself along with some other concerned community members, have arranged to have an author, community organizer and motivational speaker, Yusef Shakur, share his experience revitalizing Detroit’s Zone 8 community. He will be screening his newly released documentary, Detroit ’s Native Son: From Zone 8 Thug, to Prison, to Community Activist.

The event will include an Informational Fair, providing attendees with information about local businesses, non profits and opportunities to engage in community activism.

Saturday, April 27, 2013, 5:00-7:30 pm

Plymouth United Church of Christ (UCC)/ Wage Peace,
4010 Kalamazoo , 49508 (between 36th and 44th St .)

5pm Informational Fair, 5:30pm Documentary and Q & A, 7:30pm Book signing

For questions or more information, contact Chaka Holley at chakaholley@hotmail.com

OKT Earth Day Spring Tree Tour

Apr16

tiny tree finder

Monday April 22, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
Garfield Park Pavilion, 334 Burton St. SE

Tree tour guide, Laura Casaletto will lead us through Garfield Park where we will munch leaves and nibble flowers together  for Earth Day. The menu includes 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–and you’ll get a little booklet to help you recall what you learned.
This free tree tour is part of the food justice mission of OKT.
If it rains, we’ll meet under the pavilion anyway!

April Events

Apr11

Do you want to grow food? If you live in Eastown, Garfield Park, SECA Southtown or Baxter neighborhood you may qualify for free containers, organic starter food plants, compost and garden coaching. Email or call us if you are interested!

 Convenings on Food Justice

  • LaDonna Redmond

    LaDonna Redmond

    Lila Cabbil, president emeritus of the Rosa Parks
    Institute, will facilitate Are you a Missionary or Ally?
    Accountability and Anti-Racist Organizing for Food
    Access and Justice from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at
    LINC, 1167 Madison Ave SE. Light refreshments will be served. RSVP.

  • Saturday April 27, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
    Nationally renowned food justice activist, LaDonna Redmond, will present
    Historical Trauma and Food Justice. At Sherman Street Church, 1000 Sherman SE. Lunch will be provided. RSVP.

 Earth Day Spring Tree Tour

  • Monday, April 22, 6-7:30 p.m.

Meet at the Garfield Park Lodge, 334 Burton SE. Learn about trees growing in your neighborhood, with an emphasis on foraging edible fruit, nuts and blossoms.

You are invited to join the OKT Hunger Walk Team

Apr10

Join OKT Saturday, May 4, 2013 for the 36th Annual ACCESS of West Michigan Hunger Walk! Registration is at 8:00 a.m. and the walk starts at 8:30 a.m. We will begin at 207 E Fulton (First United Methodist Church) and wind through Heritage Hill, down Wealthy Street, through the East Hills Neighborhood and along Cherry Street before returning downtown.

The 5K Hunger Walk raises awareness and funds in response to local and worldwide need. Funds are distributed for pantry assistance, emergency meals, urban gardening and farmers market initiatives for low income people, assistance for seniors, and international development programs.

This event will bring over one thousand walkers and volunteers to the area. Anyone who wants to join the fight against hunger and poverty is welcome!

Find out how your congregation, business, family and friends can get involved! Contact Cassidy at cassidy@accessofwestmichigan.org or 284-4702 for more information.

EMail us directly  to let us know if you want to be part of the OKT team!

OKT Community Convening March 30, April 20 & 27

Mar26

Let’s discuss, reflect on and learn together about the topic “What Does Access to Food Look Like in Grand Rapids.” We will dialogue about local food access, food justice principles and food politics.

 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.  Saturday March 30 Food Politics 

 

Facilitated by Cynthia Price*, Greater Grand Rapids Food Systems Council. Meeting at Madison Square Church, 1441 Madison Ave. SE, Grand Rapids.

Price is the chair and co-founder of the Greater Grand Rapids Food Systems Council, a food policy council which has been around since 2001. Her day job is as a newspaper editor, reporter and photographer for two papers, one in Muskegon and one in Grand Rapids.

Lila Cabbill, president emeritus of the Rosa Parks Institute, will facilitate the April 20 convening. La Donna Redmond, nationally renown food justice activist, will facilitate the April 27 convening. 

Look for more information on the OKT website soon!

Nationally renown activist, LaDonna Redmond, to lead OKT’s April 27 Convening on food justice

Mar12

LaDonna Redmond is at the forefront of the food justice movement. She currently leads an Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) project that focuses on health, justice and the food system. The project centers on health disparities resulting from the food system, from the farm to consumers—particularly as they affect low‐income populations and communities of color. It also entails creating universal Food Justice Principles. Our Kitchen Table attended IATP’s Food + Justice =Democracy conference September 2012 and took part in the co‐creation of these food justice principles.

As a next step, local collective gatherings across the nation are reviewing the draft principles. Redmond will lead part 4 of the Grand Rapids area Convening, hosted by OKT, on April 27. Parts 1 and 2 will take place 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday March 30 at Madison Square Church, 1441 Madison SE. All are free and open to all community members. Part 3 will take place April 20.

A speaker, radio host and former Food and Society Policy Fellow, Redmond was one of 25 citizen and business leaders named a Responsibility Pioneer by Time Magazine. She successfully worked to get Chicago Public Schools to evaluate junk food, launched urban agriculture projects, started a community grocery store and worked on federal farm policy to expand access to healthy food in low‐income communities.

“We have a food system that has largely been built on the backs of people who don’t have a lot of rights and access to our public policy infrastructure,” said Redmond. “We need to collectively better understand the inequities in the food system and make sure we include people who have faced these inequities in finding solutions.”

Here is a video of Redmond presenting at TEDxTC

Garden education under way for 2013

Mar10

Compost class (2)OKT collaborative partner and biochemist Clinton Boyd, PhD. led classes on “How to Plan Your Food Garden,” which included information on making your own compost. This two-class series will be repeated May 11 and May 18.

OKT March Madness! Get in the game!

Mar6

How to Plan Your Food Garden 2013How to Plan Your Food Garden

10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Saturdays March  9 @ LINC
1167 Madison St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49506

Are you interested in planting your own food garden and don’t know where to start? During this free workshop, you will learn soil and food gardening basics with OKT collaborative partner and biochemist Clinton Boyd, PhD.

OKT Community Convening – RSVP by March 18

Let’s discuss, reflect on and learn together about the topic “What Does Access to Food Look Like in Grand Rapids.” We will dialogue about local food access, food justice principles and food politics at Madison Square Church, 1441 Madison Ave. SE, Grand Rapids.

  •     9 a.m. to 1 p.m.  Saturday March 23 Access to Local Food Options for Families Strained with Not Having Enough Food’
  • ·     9 a.m. to 1 p.m.  Saturday March 30 Current Food Policies and Draft Food Justice Principles. This session will be led by nationally renown food justice activist LaDonna Redmond (see attached). The Draft Food Justice Principles were developed using the People’s Movement Assembly processwhen food justice advocates from across the US convened for the Food + Justice = Democracy conference hosted by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) in Minneapolis, MN in September 2012. IATP has asked food justice advocates from around the nation to support and advance the co-creation of these food justice principles by hosting collective gatherings to review and “dig deep” into the draft principles. For more information about the principles, visit www.iatp.org. Advocates from outside of the Grand Rapids area will join us on March 30, as well.

Ladyfest March 22 & 23

OKT will be presenting a container gardening workshop at Ladyfest, 4 p.m. Saturday March 23 at the 106) GALLERY, 106 S. Division Ave. Grand Rapids. Check out the full line-up of performers and workshops  at LadyfestGR.com . Please support Ladyfest! OKT has been chosen to receive proceeds from the event this year.

“We Are Harriet Moving Tribute” March 10, 2013 at Alger Middle School

Mar6


S.T.A.R.S (SISTERS TAKING ACTION REVERSING STATISTICS) invites all community members to join the  We Are Harriet Moving Tribute, 4:30 p.m. March 10, 2013 at Alger Middle School, 921 Alger St. SE in Grand Rapids. The goal is to get 100 women walking for 100 minutes for the 100th celebration

Thousands of women and girls throughout the country will walk in solidarity to commemorate 100 years since the death of Harriet Tubman.

The event also seeks to promote walking as a way for black women and girls to turn health risks around. Today, Black women and girls face an unprecedented crisis. Black women are dying younger and at higher rates than any other group in the United States—living 3.5 years less than the national average. Studies show that 1 in 2 Black girls born in 2000 will likely get diabetes; 4 in 10 Black high school students are overweight, and; 4 out of 5 Black women are over a healthy body weight leading to deadly diseases like heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Walking 30 minutes every day and eating healthy, whole foods can prevent and reverse these diseases.

Visit  www.girltrek.org for more information.