Baxter Community Center put together this event flyer for the month of May.
First Organic Starter Food Plant Distribution!
On Saturday May 4, OKT yard gardeners came to Blandford Farm to pick up mustard greens, bok choy, broccoli, cabbage, kale, Swiss chard, herbs and three varieties of lettuces. More food plants will be distributed as the growing season commences. Our garden coaches look forward to working with these gardeners as they grow their own healthy food.
ACCESS of West Michigan Hunger Walk
Saturday May 4, 2013 was a beautiful morning for the ACCESS of West Michigan Hunger Walk. OKT members volunteered as route monitors and walkers.
According to www.worldhunger.org, an estimated 925 million people live with hunger day after day. In Grand Rapids, more than 27% of our children are food insecure. While OKT recognizes that only a systemic change to the corporate controlled food system will eliminate this injustice, efforts like the Hunger Walk do help fill the gap, here and now. We especially appreciate that some of the Hunger Walk funds will help support the Southeast Area Farmers’ Market.
WYCE 88.1 Catalyst Radio to air interview with LaDonna Redmond & Lila Cabbil
As part of their appearance with the Our Kitchen Table Convenings on Food Justice, WYCE’s Linda Gellasch interviewed LaDonna Redmond and Lila Cabbil for Catalyst Radio. Listen live at noon Friday, May 3 by turning your radio dial to 88.1 FM or stream online. OKT will publish a link to the archived program when it becomes available. The Rapidian will also feature a follow-up post.
Lila Cabbil
Cabbil, who worked side by side with Mrs. Rosa Parks for decades, serves as president emeritus of the Rosa Parks Institute and is author of the book, Accountability and White Anti-Racist Organizing: Stories from Our Work. She has also facilitated team building with the OKT staff and SoutheastArea Farmers’ Market partners over the past two years.abbil for the weekly Catalyst Radio show.
At the forefront of the food justice movement, recently launched the Campaign for Food Justice Now, a membership-based organization that will use a race, class and gender analysis to promote food and agricultural system reforms and advocate for the adoption of right-to-food policies in the United States.
LaDonna Redmond
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.
Walk with OKT Hunger Walk Team!
Rapid Growth covers LaDonna Redmond’s upcoming appearance at OKT convening
Reposted from Rapid Growth
… do good
Food justice activist LaDonna Redmond tells it like it is
THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2013
“Food justice is not just about nutrition,” says LaDonna Redmond. “It’s about dignity, and it’s about being visible.”On Saturday, April 27, the nationally renowned food justice activist and TEDx-featured speaker will present ‘Historical Trauma and Food Justice’ from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Sherman Street Church, 1000 Sherman SE, Grand Rapids. Lunch will be provided. (See how to RSVP, below.)
“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,” says 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.”
Converting vacant city lots to urban farm sites is a great start. But, Redmond says, “I live in a community where I can get a semi-automatic weapon quicker than I can get a tomato. The public health issue of violence is connected to the public health issue of chronic, diet-related diseases. In my community, it is about living or dying. You can die by the gun or from the lack of proper food.”
Redmond says that the food justice movement is really about the narratives of people of color and beginning to understand that the stories that we tell ourselves in the food movement are as important as the stories that we’ve left out.
“We must include in this the narrative of modern slavery,” she says. “Our food system today is still based on the exploitation of the labor of immigrants in this country. While we are talking about access to free-range chickens and grass-fed beef, we need to also be talking about immigration reform and fair wages for those farm workers, but, the people who serve us, who fix our food, should be paid fairly.”
A long-time community activist, Redmond has 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.
In early April 2013, she launched the Campaign for Food Justice Now (CFJN), a membership-based organization that will use a race, class, and gender analysis to promote food and agricultural system reforms, and advocate for the adoption of right-to-food policies in the U.S.
Get involved:
– Attend Redmond’s presentation at Sherman Street Church — RSVP here or call (616) 206-3641.
– Watch Redmond’s TEDx presentation on Food Justice.
– Visit the Campaign for Food Justice Now’s website.
– Visit Our Kitchen Table’s website to learn more about food justice.
Sources: Stelle Slootmaker, Our Kitchen Table; LaDonna Redmond, TEDx presentation
Writer: Victoria Mullen, Do Good Editor
Images: Courtesy of Our Kitchen Table and LaDonna Redmond
OKT Earth Day Activities at G.R. Ford Middle and MLK schools
OKT staff Roni VanBuren, Yvonne Woodard, Lisa Oliver King, Kristen Blood and Laura Casaletto treated students at Gerald R Ford Middle School and Martin Luther King Leadership Academy to special Earth Day celebrations. The kids smelled and tasted culinary herb plants, made “cootie catchers” that taught them about common edible native plants and watched the short film, “What’s On My Plate.” After planting their own herb plants from seed, everyone enjoyed a healthy snack.
OKT interviews food justice activist LaDonna Redmond
LaDonna Redmond will be at At Sherman Street Church, 1000 Sherman SE, in Grand Rapids on Saturday April 27, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Her program is entitled,”Historical Trauma and Food Justice. Lunch will be provided. RSVP.
OKT: What is food justice?
Redmond: This is an interesting question. It presupposes that we don’t grasp the idea of justice. Food justice is the right to food, the right to feed oneself and the right to know what’s in your food … If I want to feed myself and cannot, how do I remove the obstacles? (One way) is through one’s own labor, the tools and the means to grow your own food.
OKT: How does the challenge the charity paradigm?
Redmond: Food justice has nothing to do with charity and everything to do with the food system. (It challenges) the notion that people don’t have the intellect or moral capacity to feed themselves–the injustice is that they are denied the right to choose (healthy foods) for themselves. Not a judgment against charity but a challenge to any system to oppression. If we really want to have a substantive conversation, we are going to have to address the mechanism that keeps people in poverty. The economic systems in place require people to be in poverty in order that others can thrive. Charity fills the gap. How do we address a system? We encourage the community to organize.
OKT: What made you decide to come to Grand Rapids?
Redmond: My quest is to really help communities around the country to organize themselves as to address this broader problem, which is increased corporate control of our food system. (We must) politicize the issue of food justice … address the symptoms of food injustice.
OKT: How can we get our neighbors to engage in the work?
Redmond: We marginalize ourselves by suggesting that they start a garden. You can’t expect everyone to grow food. They are not going back to a time where people are forced to work the land so others have the luxury. The onus is on us to have the proper conversation with people.
OKT: How does a substandard school meals program add to the problem of under-nutrition?
Redmond: It’s the same model that keeps our communities without access to the healthiest kinds of food. (The) notion in our food system that our food has to be cheap is part of the problem … Why do we struggle to make sure schools have optimal education levels? We need the same programs to make sure our food is at absolute optimal levels. The target of the intervention is the people who run the system (school board). They have the power to change that. Organize that political voice. It’s up to us to put it on their agenda.
We’ve got to get into the political arena and begin our journey to policy, not just programs and projects. Did you know that Debbie Stabenow was in on the new Monsanto Act? This woman is undoing any potential impact of those projects. We have to stop people like her … We’ve got to find our courage to challenge these oppressive systems.
Redmond is launching a new organization, A Campaign for Food Justice Now. A membership based organization, it will not depend on foundation support, but on members sharing what they can, be it 50 cents or $5,000. “The nonprofit industrial complex is not the path to equity. The path is being able to access democracy. I’m ready to pick the big fight and tired of working in an ineffective non-profit organization. It’s time to get the people involved,” Redmond says. “We have to be encouraged now more than ever. The work on the ground is hard. Our communities have the right to feed themselves.”
For information on joining, visit http://www.cfjn.org/.
OKT 2012 Annual Report now available.
OKT is proud to release its 2012 Annual Report. We hope you will take a few minutes to review the work we accomplished this past year.
Exciting times!
LaDonna Redmond
Convenings on Food Justice
- Tune into WYCE Catalyst Radio today at noon to hear nationally renowned activists LaDonna Redmond & Lila Cabbill talk about OKT’s April 20 and 27 Food Justice convenings. We will post a link to the archived interview here next week.
- 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.
Our Kitchen Table 