All posts of HEAL Staff

Food, Race and Labor: A brief explainer

    History and background: A timeline of Race, immigration and labor in the food system  Any conversation about the food system in the United States, must be grounded in acknowledging America’s colonial and racial history.  The United States is the result of colonization, beginning with  the arrival of European colonizers and subsequent seizure of indigenous […]
4 years ago
Covid-19 stimulus package

Invest in food workers, farmers and local communities first: Our response to Congress’ COVID-19 aid package

Yesterday, the Senate approved a COVID-19 stimulus package—the largest aid package in modern American history. Out of the $2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package, merely $9.5 billion is allocated to agriculture provisions. The USDA’s Commodity Credit Corp (CCC) is set to receive an additional $14 billion boost in funding authorization that would allow them to provide […]
4 years ago

The People Providing Our Food Are Essential. We Must Treat Them That Way

We’re joining Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance(NAMA), National Family Farm Coalition(NFFC), Why Hunger, Farm Aid and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy(IATP)  in calling on Congress to ensure that their response to this pandemic prioritizes farmers, ranchers, fishers and food workers of color who are most burdened by the systemic inequities of our food system. […]
4 years ago
Workers Protests

Why does the food industry still pay poverty wages?

The food industry is one of the most profitable sectors in the US and the largest private employer in the country. Yet, 80% of industry workers earn poverty level wages. The median wages for frontline workers in the industry is just $10 an hour, as opposed to the $17.53 in all other industries. In addition […]
4 years ago

The People’s Presidential Forum: Organizing Power to Visionary Solutions

Last month, HEAL Director Navina Khanna attended the People’s Presidential Forum in Iowa. Here’s an insiders looks to what the Forum was all about. Written by Navina Khanna Last month, I accepted an invitation from Adam Mason of Iowa CCI Action to speak at the People’s Presidential Forum organized in collaboration with People’s Action. The […]
5 years ago
ICE Statement HEAL Food Alliance

Defending Immigrant Workers Means Defending Us All

A joint statement by food, farm & labor organizations Date: 8/7/2019 ICE officials raided numerous Mississippi food processing plants on August 7, arresting 680 mostly Latin-American workers in what marked the largest workplace sting in over ten years. The raids happened just as Donald Trump was arriving at El Paso, Texas, the majority-Latinx city where […]
5 years ago

100,000+  People Demand a Green New Deal that Transforms Our Food System

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, July 18, 2019 Citizen Petition Identifies Four Food System Policy Principles and Priorities that the Green New Deal Should Follow WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, eight environmental, farmworker, public health, and food safety advocacy organizations delivered a petition—signed by more than 100,000 people—to Congress. The petition champions solutions to urgent food and agriculture issues […]
5 years ago

This Happened! 3rd Annual HEAL Summit & 10th Annual FCWA Summit

By Neshani Jani, Communications Director & Zeenab Aneez, Communications & Development Associate A few weeks ago, under the gorgeous blue skies and billowing clouds of Albuquerque, New Mexico, the HEAL Food Alliance and the Food Chain Workers Alliance (FCWA) joined forces for our first ever joint Summit! Our annual summits have become strong traditions for […]
5 years ago