Growing Food and Justice For All





 

Growing Food and Justice for All Initiative

www.growingfoodandjustice.org

2nd Annual Gathering
Food and Spirit: Building Cross Cultural Understanding for Systems Change
October 30 - November 1, 2009
Wisconsin State Fair Grounds
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Food, Culture and Spirituality has been tied together ever since man began to search for and cultivate food. Aboriginal peoples have: created tools and artifacts (culture) to eat, cook and store food; appealed to the elements, nature, of higher powers, meditated and prayed (spirituality) over the seed, fields, plants, weather, soil, harvest, and meals (food). The Culture, Food and Spirituality subcommittee examined the many ways that the human spirit recognizes food throughout the production process, across cultures in planning the following activities.

The gathering has several key goals:
- To build networks and alliances between GFJI members and affiliates
- To strengthen and support leadership prowess and confidence
- To facilitate anti-racism, dismantling racism and multicultural alliance
   building workshops and trainings geared toward all levels of experience
- To share stories, engage in dialogues and build community

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Monthly conference calls occur on the 2nd Tuesday of every month at 10:30 a.m. central time.  Please contact Diane Dodge dianefaydodge@hotmail.com for more information and to sign up for the initiative's list serv.

Support our work.  Make a donation to Growing Food and Justice for All today!

 

 

The Growing Food and Justice for All Initiative (GFJI), hosted by Growing Power, Inc. is a new comprehensive network that views dismantling racism as a core principal that brings together social change agents from diverse sectors working to bring about new, healthy and sustainable food systems and supporting and building multicultural leadership in impoverished communities throughout the world.

The vision for this initiative is to establish a powerful network of individuals, organizations and community based entities all working toward a food secure and just world. This initiative will support the following:  

  • Annual conference/summit designed to share information, strategies and to build a collective platform for the year;

  • Support local, national and international networking sessions between members;

  • Establish a voice and presence in the formation of policies that support justice, economic opportunity and equity reflecting the values and integrity of GFJI members;  

  • Provide administrative support for members to host dismantling racism, policy building and technical assistance; 

  • Host monthly teleconference calls for committees ;

  • Publish quarterly newsletter that features information on dR, social justice and policy and information relevant to members (opportunity for members to promote programs, activities, etc.) ;

  • Establish website for initiative ;

  • Hire full time initiative administrator; and

  • Contract Dismantling Racism training organization(s) to teach initiative members how to train dR trainers.

History and Scope of the GFJI

The organizing of the GFJI reflects the need for innovative and genuine leadership in the development of a sustainable, community-based food systems movement.  The founding members of the initiative are the practitioners of sustainable food systems work: mainly farmers, marketers and other workers who are building new, local systems.  Some are familiar with coalition and advocacy work at the national and international levels, while others are new to large-scale initiatives. This initiative strives to outreach to other parallel social justice movements and build solidarity and multidisciplinary support, in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr.’s philosophy of building “Beloved Community”.

The principal objective of the GFJI Initiative network is to create support for the local work that is already underway throughout North America, employing a from-the-ground-up strategy to build power for broad food systems change across the world.  

 

Vision

To work together with a shared vision of dismantling racism via network building, shared leadership, economic growth and community food systems :

  • Every neighborhood in low-income communities and communities of color has full access to fresh, healthy, local, affordable, culturally appropriate food every day through a variety of retail channels ranging from farmer’s markets to locally-owned small corner stores and supermarkets.

  • In every neighborhood in low-income communities and communities of color the residents of the neighborhood own and operate the small businesses that produce, distribute and sell the fresh, healthy food consumed in the neighborhood.

  • Through ownership and operation of the local food system, every neighborhood in low-income communities and communities of color provides opportunity for its children to develop business skills and leadership capacity offering hope that each child, every family and the community itself can achieve its self-determined destiny.

Budget 

We are estimating $150,000 annual budget for this project.

 

List of committees

  • Fundraising:  Listing potential sources of funds, planning which funders to approach, grant writing, etc.

  • Membership/Partnership/Outreach:  Developing a membership/partnership policy, setting fees for membership, making sure that our efforts can reach all people interested in dismantling racism (and other related "isms") in a sustainable and socially just food system, etc.

  • Communications:  Develop website, do surveys, work closely with other committees (particularly Education) to have relevant and up-to-date materials available for the purpose of dismantling racism in a sustainable and socially just food system, etc.

  • Conference/dismantling racism/training of trainers (TOT):  Developing conference scenario and logistics, developing dismantling racism trainings at all levels, developing a training of trainers program so that the initiative has well qualified trainers in all geographical areas that might require them, etc.

  • Education:  Developing and making easily accessible any material that relates to the mission and vision of the initiative, working closely with the Communications committee, etc.

 

Documents to Download


Milwaukee Headquarters:  5500 W. Silver Spring Drive, Milwaukee, WI 53218

Tel. 414.527.1546 l Fax 414.527.1908

Chicago Projects Office:  2215 W. North Avenue, Chicago, IL 60647

Tel. 773.486.6005