At the HEAL Food Alliance we believe that all of us, no matter who we are or where we come from, deserve to have a say in the policies that affect our families and communities. We recognize the importance of getting progressive and justice-based activists and organizations politically seated, but also know that in order to change the current system of corporate dispossession and exploitation, our movement needs to support local campaigns that benefit families, working people, and our planet. 

HEAL created our School of Political Leadership in 2017 for this very reason – to develop justice-based governance and advocacy rooted in fair and sustainable food systems that truly work by and for all of us. We’re proud to say that to date, we’ve graduated 34 leaders from our School of Political Leadership and this year, we’ve welcomed 12 new leaders to our program!

SoPL officially kicked off our 4th cohort earlier this year with three incredible teams: Chinue, Dominique, Marco, and Chito, our “Rooted in Richmond Food Justice” team are working together to improve healthy food access & promote food sovereignty among low income residents of color in California’s Bay Area. Violeta, Felix, Brandin, and Nicholas, our “Illinois Food Alliance” team are organizing with food warehouse workers to push for better protection and safety measures. Bea, Jazmin, Ren, and Viviana, our “Together Honoring Earth’s Mycelia” team are honoring the sacred history and cultural practices of BIPOC foodways while cultivating a thriving real food community.

The communities that our SoPL teams represent have been purposefully excluded from major decision making processes and policies that directly affect their lives. We’re so excited to support the development of their campaigns this year through SoPL, in order to help drive control of our food system away from a few select corporations and politicians, and back into the hands of accountable leaders who are grounded in values that support equity, community, and care for our planet. 

So how exactly are we doing that?! 

SoPL is a six-month long virtual program. We’ve been through two intensive sessions with the cohort already. We spent the first SoPL session orienting the new cohort to HEAL’s purpose, our vision, mission and history, and talked about SoPL’s aim to shift accountable leadership, governance & political feasibility. We also spent time getting to know each other and the HEAL staff, to set the stage for the concepts and skills that we will dissect and build over the next several months together. 

During our second session we dug into political leadership life mapping and storytelling. The cohort increased their understanding of their personal trajectory/role in food and farm systems work as well as their confidence in anchoring their work in their own storytelling culture. We also engaged in political education via a movement timeline, root problems & visioning activity to diagnose root causes of incoming threats and ongoing abuses to land and life, and grounded ourselves in the need for cohort’s collective work. The two days that we spent together built a real sense of solidarity and shared struggle across race, sector, and geography and deepened our conviction to defend the most marginalized to make towards transformational change

We have four more sessions left, which will focus on power analysis & campaign strategy development, field & base building strategy, and communications campaign strategy and development. These sessions will dig deep into contextualizing the tools, knowledge, and skills our teams will need to lead campaigns and drive political change, and will set our teams up to present fully formed campaign plans that they will begin to implement together at their respective organizations after SoPL ends.

We’ve invited our 2022 SoPL leaders to reflect on each of the following sessions here in this space, so stay tuned to follow them on their journey and to learn more about how they are using SoPL to build political power in their communities.

And please take some time to meet the amazing SoPL cohort!

The post What does justice-based governance and advocacy really look like? Let’s talk about SoPL! appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

Contact: Alicia Mercedes, alicia.mercedes@berlinrosen.com; Neshani Jani, neshani@healfoodalliance.org

12 Leaders Join Majority BIPOC Political Leadership Cohort to Develop Food and Farm Justice Campaigns

HEAL Food Alliance’s School of Political Leadership brings together food and farm justice leaders from across the country to develop a blueprint for inclusive, community-based food and agriculture systems

NATIONAL (February 23, 2022) — Today, the HEAL (Health, Environment, Agriculture, Labor) Food Alliance welcomes 12 grassroots leaders to the fourth cohort of its School of Political Leadership (SoPL). Through the six-month, virtual program these community leaders, activists and organizers will build skills to develop campaigns that address the many injustices of our current food system and drive political change in their communities. 

“All of us, no matter who we are or where we come from, deserve to have a say in the policies that affect our families and communities,” said Marla Karina Larrave, Political Education Director at the HEAL Food Alliance. “The communities that our SoPL teams represent have been purposefully excluded from major decision making processes and policies that directly affect their lives, leaving control of our food system in the hands of a few select corporations and politicians. We need accountable leadership grounded in values that support equity, community, and care for our planet. The individuals in our 2022 cohort are those leaders.”

“I believe SoPL will help strengthen the voice of local, community leaders in our city who come from areas where the need for healthy options is highest” said Marco Lemus, Community Organizer at Urban Tilth and member of the 2022 SoPL cohort. “We hope to grow a city that will model for the rest of the world what a food system centered around human life actually looks like, and that can only happen by prioritizing BIPOC lives and voices, since we are most likely to be at risk of health issues not only because of where we live, but also because we make up a vast majority of the frontline communities who work growing, cooking, and distributing food and related essential services.”

The 2022 cohort is composed of three teams – two from Illinois and one from California – who will be developing campaigns at the intersections of workers’ rights, community health, and sustainable urban agriculture. These teams include: 

Illinois Food Alliance (Chicago and Joliet, IL)

• Violeta Thompson (she/they), Community Health Navigator, Warehouse Workers for Justice
• Felix Ortiz (he/they), Community Health Navigator, Warehouse Workers for Justice
• Brandin McDonald (he/him), Community Health Navigator, Warehouse Workers for Justice 
• Nicholas Domberg (he/him), Worker Protection Organizer, Warehouse Workers for Justice

Through SoPL, the Illinois Food Alliance team will develop a plan to organize a campaign across the local food warehouse industry that will bring food warehouse workers together to challenge the stranglehold that problematic staffing agencies and third party logistics companies have over workers. As former warehouse workers, the team regularly engages in community outreach to organize workers in the Chicago area. Most recently they’ve led COVID-19 vaccination and safety education, fought to ensure that water remains affordable and safe for all city residents in Will County and moved forward a grassroots effort to stop NorthPoint from developing 3,800 acres of industrial warehousing.

Rooted in Richmond Food Justice (Richmond, CA)

• Chinue Fields (she/her), Operations & Facilities Manager, Urban Tilth
• Dominique Miller (she/her), Garden Coordinator, Urban Tilth
• Marco Lemus (he/him), Community Organizer, Urban Tilth
• Chito Floriano (he/him), North Richmond Farm Coordinator, Urban Tilth

The Rooted in Richmond Food Justice team is composed of West Contra Costa County, CA residents who come from the communities they serve and have experienced the devastating health outcomes of food apartheid. Through the “Food is Medicine” campaign, the team will aim to create a plan for a permanent funding stream to support very low income residents of color in Contra Costa County, so that fresh vegetable boxes can be covered by the Contra Costa Health Plan as preventative medicine. The team also plans to build a base of Richmond residents and support them to make policy changes that can improve their quality of life. 

Together Honoring Earth’s Mycelia (Chicago, IL)

• Bea Fry (they/them), Development Steward, Advocates for Urban Agriculture
• Jazmin Martinez (they/them), Co-Operations Steward, Advocates for Urban Agriculture
• Ren Encinas (they/them), Organizing Steward, Advocates for Urban Agriculture
• Viviana Okakpu (they/them) Co-Operations Steward, Advocates for Urban Agriculture

The Together Honoring Earth’s Mycelia team plans to strengthen their base building skills to better advocate for BIPOC farmers while co-leading the Urban Agriculture Working Group of Chicago’s Food Equity Council. Their work will center the voices of farmers and growers as the team works with the city of Chicago to create a pathway for the sustainability of urban agriculture. As growers and farmers themselves, the team brings a wealth of experience to their campaign. Most recently at AUA, they’ve worked to ensure access to municipal water for growers in Chicago and co-create an alternative re-granting fund for farm businesses.

The 2022 HEAL SoPL leaders are community activists, organizers, health advocates, farmers, growers, small business owners, land stewards, and storytellers. The cohort was selected for their commitment to racial, economic, and environmental justice and their campaign ideas, which center the knowledge, wisdom, and leadership of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) who have been on the frontlines of the fight for food system transformation for decades. The 2022 SoPL Cohort is the fourth to be launched by the HEAL Food Alliance since SoPL’s founding in 2017, bringing the total number of SoPL leaders to 46.

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About the HEAL Food Alliance 

The HEAL (Health, Environment, Agriculture, Labor) Food Alliance is a national multi-sector, multi-racial coalition. We are led by our member-organizations, who represent about two million rural and urban farmers, ranchers, fishers, farm and food chain workers, indigenous groups, scientists, public health advocates, policy experts, and community organizers united in their commitment to transformed food systems that are healthy for all families, accessible and affordable for all communities, and fair to the working people who grow, distribute, prepare, and serve our food – while protecting the air, water, and land we all depend on. www.healfoodalliance.org 

The post Meet the 2022 HEAL School of Political Leadership (SoPL) Cohort! appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

I have been a big fan of the HEAL Food Alliance for years. I learned about the School of Political Leadership from a couple of Food Justice organizer friends, Miah Ulyssee and Rebekah Williams, who were both part of HEAL’s first SoPL cohort. Participating in SoPL was a powerful experience for Miah and Rebekah and their organizing efforts, so I was really excited about the prospect of being part of a future SoPL cohort. I joined the staff at Pesticide Action Network (PAN) – one of HEAL’s member organizations –  last year in the fall. My SoPL teammate Vera and I were already organizing the Midwest Farmers of Color when I came to PAN and met up with Beverly and Tanya with the Toxic Taters Coalition. We were wanting to build an alliance between our groups and saw SoPL as a great opportunity to do that.

Our Vision and Path

My SoPL team – Communities Uniting for Farmer Health & Justice – is working to impact the decision making processes around pesticides, farming and racial equity in MN, through coalition building and narrative and art based projects. We are in a state (Minnesota) where 70% of agriculture is commodity farming that happens at an industrial scale and is heavily reliant on pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Drawing in tens of billions of dollars each year, the agro chemical and large-scale agricultural corporations are highly invested in keeping the system the same, even though it poisons our people, contaminates our land and water, and exploits small and sustainable farmers. As mighty and resilient as we small farmers and environmental justice warriors are, we are up against a lot in our economic and political systems. But with the Baby-boomer generation of farmers retiring and the deep racial and social inequities that more people are seeing with the pandemic and uprising against racist police violence, we feel we are at a critical time to get more public, organizational and political support for deeper changes in our food system. 

This is about transforming our food system, in Minnesota, in this country, on this planet. This is about food sovereignty and the ways we are learning to heal the land and heal ourselves. HEAL understands how hard this work is, how much it asks of us as organizers of color, what the stakes are and why we need each other to win. SoPL gives us these chances to be together and be vulnerable, to share our big dreams and our fears; to learn from some of the best in our field and take on some of the biggest battles of our time.

Reflections on Session 5 of SoPL

For the 5th and penultimate session of the School of Political Leadership (which focused on strategic communications for campaigns), we learned amazing skills and insight from Communications Strategist & Trainer Nina Smith. Specifically, we dug into how how our voices can have a bigger impact through different media platforms. A major part of our organizing campaign is about reclaiming the narrative about who we are as farmers in Minnesota, and how our safety and wellness is directly connected to our food system.  Nina’s training gave us some insights to embody our power position with the media and amplify our message to the broader public.  

• Know our goal and community we want to reach! 
• For press, radio and TV, the time is short so being clear and bringing our main points to the forefront early is important.  This is very different from how we share our experiences in the community. Crafting soundbites feels a little strange but if we only have a few lines or a few minutes, we need to have clear messaging for what we stand for, why that’s important, and what people can do in support.
• When we speak to radio hosts, interviewees or reporters’ stay centered on our message, if it’s a TV, live online interview, or radio spot- remember body language and tone are just as important as your message. Also practice with someone before an interview rather than just reviewing your written points, in real life the host or reporters may not follow a script. 
• Just as we build relationships with community residents and organizational partners, building and maintaining relationships with press outlets we want matters. Research media contacts and think about what attracts them for a story or a group. We want access to platforms that reach our audiences and when we find those opportunities, we need to take care of those relationships so that they are there for us when we need them again. 
• Earned media, or press, is valuable to help lift our issues and visibility to a larger audience. For our campaign, while our local events will draw people in a smaller geographic area, we don’t want to miss the chance to elevate the issue we’re fighting through larger press outlets and garner wider public support.

This training really helped us think more broadly about our organizing campaign. Beyond reaching out to our supporters to attend our events or respond to action alerts, we can use the press to elevate our issues to the regional or state levels, and that’s how we can build greater support for our cause and generate political pressure. I think we all know that media is powerful but feeling like we are in a powerful position, in an interview or on a radio show, changes how it feels to do that part of our work. The tips we learned here are also good for talking with elected officials.

Closing Out & Looking to the Future

Our campaign is an organizing one, where we’re bringing together core communities who are underrepresented (farmers and rural residents) to leverage power and find new strategies for making changes in our food and farming system. Through HEAL, we found some great tools for coalition building, like the HEAL Protocols and Principles, a great example of shared agreements between organizations with people of different cultural backgrounds but with shared goals of racial and social justice. 

We had great trainers, Navina Khanna, Jose Oliva, Nina Smith to give us their best advice and  knowledge on contextualizing the work, organizing tools for change and elevating our work through communications. There is never enough time but we really appreciate these sessions and the work of the HEAL staff. They worked hard to make our program special even though we couldn’t meet in person, and listened to our feedback to help meet our needs. We also connected with other cohort members and were able to learn and share about our communities and our campaigns. We also had some good out of session meetings with the Idaho team, and feel like we now have friends and partners across the country who are demanding the same changes in the way our food is grown and distributed and we can call on each other for advice and support.

Finally, We have the opportunity to change our local food system and impact the way the world sees food.  We have big bold dreams and through SoPL we got a combination of advice, technical skills and connections to help us get to them.

Zoe Hollomon is a Black, queer, food system activist, artist and farmer, who’s been organizing with BIPOC communities for over 17 years. She started organizing in food justice in Buffalo, NY and has since worked in NYC and Minnesota to grow food, build relationships between farmers and urban communities, and impact decision-making in food, farming and health-related policy. She co-founded the Good Food Purchasing Twin Cities Coalition in 2017, which has been changing Minneapolis Public School District’s food purchasing practices to better support health and nutrition, fair labor, environmental sustainability, local economy, and humane treatment of animals. Read more about Zoe »

The post Our Vision & Path: Reflections on Session 5 of HEAL’s School of Political Leadership appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

Kara Watkins-Chow, kara.watkinschow@berlinrosen.com
Neshani Jani, neshani@healfoodalliance.org

14 BIPOC Leaders Join Political Leadership Cohort to Develop Democratic Food & Farm Programs

HEAL Food Alliance School of Political Leadership brings together food and farm justice leaders from across four states to develop blueprint for inclusive, democratic food and agriculture systems 

OAKLAND, CA – As the pandemic and climate chaos continue to threaten food security and working people’s safety–especially in communities of color–the HEAL (Health, Environment, Agriculture, Labor) Food Alliance is redoubling its support for a new generation of grassroots leaders developing inclusive, sustainable solutions for our food and farm systems. Today, the HEAL Food Alliance School of Political Leadership (SoPL) welcomes 14 leaders from four states across the U.S. to a six-month long virtual program designed to equip them with the tools, knowledge, and skills they will need to lead campaigns and drive political change. 

“For too long, the people who determine our food and farm policies have exploited people and the planet for profit, and with the triple threat of COVID-19, white supremacy, and climate chaos bearing down on us this year, we can’t afford to continue this status quo,” said Marla Karina Larrave, Political Education Director at the HEAL Food Alliance. “We must empower the farmers, organizers, and people working across the food chain who are most burdened by these threats to lead our food system and to decide what policies are best for them and for the planet.”

“Many of us have been organizers for a long time, but right now we’re operating at a critical moment, one where more people are making connections between the corporatization of our food system and the blatant disregard for our lives, our planet, and our future” said Zoe Hollomon, Organizing Co-Director at for Pesticide Action Network North America and member of the 2021 HEAL SoPL cohort. “Our communities are coming together to fight in different and creative ways and HEAL’s School of Political Leadership will offer a support network and resources to BIPOC and grassroots organizers who are experts in food justice to make our movement more powerful and connect us with other leaders fighting for system change.” 

The 2021 cohort is composed of four teams from Minnesota, Idaho, Virginia, and California who are leading campaigns at the intersection of climate and agriculture; racially just food systems including land access and food procurement policy; and uplifting traditional food practices. This year’s cohort includes:

Communities Uniting for Farmer Health & Justice. Based in Minnesota; working for health, environmental and economic justice for rural communities in a region dominated by industrial agriculture.

• Zoe Hollomon, Organizing Co-Director in Minnesota for Pesticide Action Network North America who has been organizing with BIPOC communities for over 17 years. Zoe is part of the Twin Cities Good Food Purchasing Coalition. Zoe co-founded the Midwest Farmers of Color Collective, 60+ urban, rural and suburban farmers of color organizing for racial justice in food and farming in MN. 
• Beverly St. John, Adjunct Faculty, White Earth Tribal Community College & Advisory Committee Member of Toxic Taters Coalition. Beverly is a member of the Red Rock Band of Ojibwe’ and is active with Toxic Taters, a native and non-native coalition working for the reduction of pesticides on corporate farms.
• Vera Allen, Farmer Activist & Co-Founder of the Midwest Farmers of Color Collective, who works on food policy initiatives affecting Indigenous peoples. Specifically Vera is working on ways to serve BIPOC people in the quest for land rematriation and food autonomy. 

Idaho Food Sovereignty Project. Based in Idaho, working on traditional food cultivation and food sovereignty for local communities.

• Samantha Guerrero, Bilingual Community Organizer for Agriculture and Food, Idaho Organization of Resource Councils (IORC). Samantha is an elected official for Idaho’s largest community college and co-founded the Idaho Immigrant Resource Alliance, a coalition of eight nonprofits, to bring together resources for immigrant and migrant families during the pandemic.
• Sidney Fellows, Member, IORC, who is working to help implement native plants onto Indigenous farm and ranch land to increase native pollinators and biodiversity.
• Marielena Vega, Visión 2C Resource Council (V2C) Chair, IORC, who has committed to organizing her community to take action on policies that affect the land, food, water, and health of community members. 
• Benjamin Trieu, Board Member, IORC, who has organized a sustainable farming film festival, assisted running a victorious city council campaign, and co-founded the Treasure Valley Community Garden Cooperative.

Cultivate Charlottesville: Land, Liberate, Reparate. Based in Virginia, working on urban agriculture, access for Black and Brown farmers in Charlottesville, and food as a human right.

• Richard Morris, Urban Agriculture Collective Farm and Foodroots Program Director, Cultivate Charlottesville, a former software designer, descended from farmers and committed to urban agriculture and land access as a key to liberation.
• Tamara Wright, Community Advocate Lead, Cultivate Charlottesville, who has been involved in food justice for nearly a decade. Tamara serves on the board of the Urban Agriculture Collective of Charlottesville, and founded and leads the Community Advocate program which amplifies grassroots leaders in conversations around food justice.
• Leon Nunez, Garden Associate, Cultivate Charlottesville, started as a youth food justice intern in 8th grade. Leon is passionate about showing youth that they have power to change the food system and make a difference in their communities. 
• Jeanette Abi-Nader, Executive Director, Cultivate Charlottesville, whose work focuses on farming as a tool for community development and building a healthy and just food system.  

Good Food Oakland. Based in California, working on passing climate and racial justice-related food purchasing policies in Oakland.

• Asia Hampton, Special Projects Manager, HOPE Collaborative, who comes to the table with 10 years of experience working  to increase equitable access to food, cultural relevance in food education and economic opportunity.
• Elizabeth Esparza, Food Justice Community Organizer, HOPE Collaborative, who specializes in public policy and making information about how to address systemic injustice in our food system accessible for all. 
• Tiffani Patton, Co-Director, Real Food Media, Tiffani brings years of active engagement in food system transformation, storytelling for change, communications strategy, and the connection of art, music, and culture to food in the Bay Area and beyond. She co-produces and co-hosts the Real Food Reads and Foodtopias podcasts. 

The 2021 HEAL SoPL leaders are community activists, organizers, educators, farmers, students, land stewards, non profit leaders, and strategists. The four teams that compose the 2021 cohort were selected for their commitment to racial, economic, and environmental justice and their campaign ideas, which center the knowledge, wisdom, and leadership of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) who have been on the frontlines of the fight for food sovereignty, racial justice, climate justice, food security, worker justice, land justice, and environmental justice for decades. Through participation in SoPL, these visionary leaders will gain the tools, skills and knowledge to grow grassroots political leadership in their communities while addressing urgent and systemic flaws in our current food and agricultural system. The 2021 SoPL Cohort is the third to be launched since SoPL’s founding in 2017, bringing the total number of SoPL leaders to 34.

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About the HEAL Food Alliance 

The HEAL (Health, Environment, Agriculture, Labor) Food Alliance is a national multi-sector, multi-racial coalition. We are led by our member-organizations, who represent about two million rural and urban farmers, ranchers, fishers, farm and food chain workers, indigenous groups, scientists, public health advocates, policy experts, and community organizers united in their commitment to transformed food systems that are healthy for all families, accessible and affordable for all communities, and fair to the working people who grow, distribute, prepare, and serve our food – while protecting the air, water, and land we all depend on. www.healfoodalliance.org 

The post HEAL Welcomes our 3rd School of Political Leadership Cohort! appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

HEAL Food Alliance Announces Second School of Political Leadership (SoPL) Cohort 

Meet the 2019-2020 SoPL leaders working to transform our food and farm systems 

OAKLAND, CA – November 7th, 2019 – Today the HEAL (Health, Environment, Agriculture, Labor) Food Alliance announced the second cohort of its School of Political Leadership (SoPL), a program for developing frontline leaders working towards more inclusive, democratic food and agriculture systems.

The nine-month long program will equip 11 leaders with the tools, knowledge, and skills they need to lead campaigns and drive political change. The cohort is organized into three teams from diverse communities in the U.S. and Navajo nation, working on new food economies, urban agriculture and equity, and food sovereignty.  

“Political leadership is key to systemic policy change on issues like food insecurity, land tenure, and wealth generation of under resourced and communities of color across the country,” said Qiana Mickie, a member of this year’s cohort and Executive Director of New York City based non-profit Just Food. “The time is now for grassroots policy campaigns that engage and are driven by the most impacted – in particular Black, Brown, and Indigenous leaders. SoPL is so critical to ensuring our collective voices and actions are felt from the ground up in politics.” 

HEAL’s SoPL leaders are community activists, organizers, educators, agroecologists, social entrepreneurs, land stewards, researchers, and advocates. The cohort includes rural and urban farmers, a community health worker, co-op founder, community garden manager, CEO, policy advisor, and non-profit directors.

“For too long the people who determine our food and farm policies have profited off of people and the planet. With the threat of climate change, we can’t afford to wait. From farmers to food chain workers, we must harness our people power to truly nourish our health, our economy, and the environment” said Marla Karina Larrave, Political Education Manager at HEAL. Through SoPL, the three teams will advocate for solutions to reimagine how our food and farm systems function in their own communities.

“The communities I serve deserve leaders who have the skills to help transform the political discourse and landscape to address the pressing challenges and barriers they face to advance themselves and their families,” said Stephanie Le-Charles Hall, Executive Director for Tolani Lake Enterprises, a Navajo-based nonprofit. “SoPL will help our grassroots leaders, including myself, who are working on food and water projects and programs to accelerate our existing work into political and governmental policies that directly benefit our communities.”

“As CEO of an urban agriculture business, the work that we do has a direct impact on low income and economically disadvantaged communities struggling with a lack of access to healthy food options and food insecurity” said Allison DeHonney, SoPL leader and CEO of Buffalo, NY-based Urban Fruits and Veggies. “We work diligently to make substantive changes in people’s lives with respect to the food that directly affects their health. Being knowledgeable in advocacy work – and working through SoPL to gain such knowledge – is important to continue to be effective in my community.”

Through interactive trainings, including power analysis, campaign strategy, communications and messaging, and field and base building, SoPL will prepare the teams to rise to the political, social, and economic challenges that are facing our food and farm systems today. Each in-person SoPL session will include hands-on field visits developed by local SoPL leaders, HEAL members and ally organizations.  

The first SoPL session will be held in Lindsay, CA in November 2019, where the teams will learn about each other’s work, examine their own political leadership through life mapping and storytelling, and ground themselves the history and culture of California’s Central Valley. SoPL alumni Ángel García and Californians for Pesticide Reform will host the session. 

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About the HEAL Food Alliance 

The HEAL (Health, Environment, Agriculture, Labor) Food Alliance is a multi-sector, multi-racial coalition building collective power to transform our food and farm systems. We are led by our member-organizations, and strive to amplify the experience and expertise of frontline communities who are most burdened by the disparities of our current systems. Together, we are developing solutions to drive change. www.healfoodalliance.org 

The post HEAL Food Alliance Announces Second School of Political Leadership (SoPL) Cohort  appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

I’m going to be honest – As a Black educated, progressive Washingtonian with many Latinx friends and allies in the movement – I thought I knew. I thought I knew about the struggle of immigrants, but I really didn’t. At least, not until I went to visit the Paso Del Norte region this December for the the final session of the inaugural year of HEAL’s first School of Political Leadership (SoPL).

The HEAL SoPL Crew at our Final Session in El Paso

I had an amazing  journey with our nine SoPL Leaders and HEAL staff during our final SoPL session. Over three days we met and trained with community leaders from El Paso, TX and Anthony, NM and learned about their community farm and cooperative business projects, electoral work, advocacy campaigns – including meeting with the leaders of La Mujer Obrera, Cafe Mayapan, Tierra Es Vida and La Semilla Food Center, and State Senator Jose Rodriguez’ Constituent Services Director.

A Snapshot of our 5th Session

We learned a lot about the particular struggles, strategies, and cultures of their region, as well as did some good old-fashioned organizing training and hands-on-the-land time. I co-led the session with our powerhouse SoPL Leader Victoria Quevedo, Food Planning and Policy Coordinator at La Semilla Food Center, who hosted our final session in El Paso — I mean Ciudad Juarez — I mean Anthony, New Mexico! I mean…what do I mean?!?!

Ok. Deep Breath. Let me break it down:

First, I mean – the dominant, false, fear mongering, racist narrative that Latino immigrants are criminals crossing the border between the U.S. and Mexico in droves to steal our jobs is ACTUALLY COMPLETELY FALSE. Our land is actually their land – or rather, the land we we were standing on in El Paso, the land the nurtures and sustains so many of us, has always been there for them. 

Second, I mean – the REAL history of the indigenous communities of the modern-day American Southwest and the REAL relationship between those people and their families on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo, is an incredibly relevant story whose lessons could help us re-shape progressive global immigration policy. But it’s a story deliberately left untold in major American educational, governmental, and media institutions.

Third, I mean – visiting the Paso Del Norte Region and seeing the completely artificial borders between Mexico, Texas, and New Mexico, made me realize just how ridiculous and unnecessary the fragmentation of families, culture, economy, and environment has been due to the relentless colonization of native lands.

Fourth, I mean – learning the history of Latina garment factory workers native to the Southwest, and the devastating impact that NAFTA had on their wages and access to dignified work in the 90’s – not to mention the harmful long-term economic effects of the segregation of communities by industrial railroads, or the health implications for children in those communities due to unregulated toxic metal recycling dumps in their neighborhoods, or the looming presence of military and border patrol personnel and prisons.

I could feel and clearly see the weight that our allies in that region carry with them every day. The oppression that they endure on a daily basis, is evident in the tightness of their jaws. It’s evident in their gates when they walk and in the heavy sighs when they talk. They reminded me of me, and the story of my people this country. Shining through the darkness of colonization though, are the most beautiful and stead-fast lights, sounds, smells, and flavors.

Lights. They radiate from the smiles of the amazing women who operate Café Mayapan – a cooperatively owned restaurant, café, childcare and organizing space in the middle of Barrio Chamizal of El Paso. Shout out to Lorena and Hilda, the inspiring and disciplined leaders of Las Mujeres Obreras, who showed our SoPL cohort the strength and importance of ongoing community-based political education and practice. Shout out to Valerie who gifted me with real natural honey and herbal teas harvested locally.

Sounds. They vibrate out of the requinto and segunda jaranas to fill the vast desert with the spirit of resistance and self-love. Shout out to Victoria, Francisco, Rubi, and Yahvi for sharing and inviting me and all of the SoPL leaders into the culture.

Smells and Flavors. They heal the soul and the mind after long days. The barrel cactus, nopales, the salt plant, la gobenadora plant, chiles, asparagus, cinnamon and CAFÉ and TAMALES! The food that was shared with us throughout our visit was beyond delicious and nurturing. It was powerful.  It told stories. It was restorative, sustainably produced, and mostly vegan. I’m an omnivore and I never missed meat once! Shout out to all the La Semilla Food Center leaders, Sthonebirds and, our incredible amazing SoPL Leader and Chef Neftali Duran of iCollective, who made the best pozole of life!

I know that this culture is a foundation of their resilience, as culture is a source of resilience for Black Americans too. It is powerful and deeply seeded. It will never die. It will keep working for them, for us, and keep transforming those who are lucky enough to encounter and share in it. It is what enabled me, and the SoPL cohort, to rip up withered, dry crab grass to make space to grow real food at Tierra Es Vida community farm. That’s right – poor folks are growing life sustaining food in the middle of abandoned lots in the desert, which made me think to myself, “Damn I ain’t really doing anything back home!”

As a Black woman, and a leader of the HEAL Food Alliance and trainer for the School of Political Leadership, my experience in El Paso recommitted me to be in solidarity with indigenous and immigrant communities. Whether it’s about food justice, or economic justice, housing, land or educational justice – we absolutely must love one another and have each other’s backs. Speaking of which, I need to call the love warrior Victoria Quevedo (who as I mentioned, is one of our star SoPL leaders) and see how I can help hold accountable the elected officials who are failing the indigenous communities of the Paso Del Norte region RIGHT NOW!

Thank you for following along with us on our SoPL journey. If you need a recap of the full SoPL year, check out our posts on previous sessions, or check out our SoPL video below. And stay tuned for updates on applications for year two of SoPL – we are planning BIG THINGS!

Nikki MG Cole is a passionate strategist, organizer, advocate, and fundraiser for workers’ rights. She has over 17 years of experience in the hospitality industry, and began her organizing career with the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Washington, DC in 2009. Nikki is the newest addition to the HEAL team, excited and ready to build power with people to reclaim their health, environments, and economic power. Learn more about Nikki

The post Reflections from the Final Session of HEAL’s SoPL in Paso Del Norte appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

We had big dreams going into 2018. And with your help, we leaped into action, organizing the #RealMeals campaign and successfully running the first year of our HEAL School of Political Leadership (SoPL). Our dream team of over 50 member organizations welcomed four new organizations into our Alliance, and thanks to you we mobilized and unified people across the country to build the power our communities need to transform our food and farm systems.

None of this would be possible without your commitment and support. Read below to get a taste of some of the events we’re most most proud of – and if you’re able – please donate now to support our work so that together, we can grow even stronger in 2019.

Thank you again for your support of HEAL and your dedication to fighting for food and farming justice. We look forward to growing our collective power and strengthening our community and Alliance with you in 2019! Let’s do this!

The post Our 2018 End of Year Report appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

Part 1: Central Valley Livin’

I want to start off by asking you to imagine living in hot, swamp cooler-running, chemical-smelling, high-revving pesticide spraying machinery summer days. Well, no need to use your imagination if you live in a community not under city designation, or if you live out in the peripheries of town or city, next to agricultural activity in a place like California’s central valley. Hot. Swampy. Chemicals. Pesticides. These are some of the ways that residents have described summer days where I live in Tulare County, CA—a stark contrast from green trees and luscious fruits visible from Highway 99 (and let’s not forget the ever-stretching green grids of farmland).

In my region, pesticide exposure can easily go unreported and is normalized as being “needed” for local agriculture to thrive. If you are ever in the region, it won’t take you long to notice how the fields treated with pesticides either surround or are next to schools, homes, and areas where kids live, learn and play. Not surprisingly, the harmful pesticides have also made their way into our air, our water, and our bodies. Residents of Tulare County are tired of the harm that these pesticides have been inflicting on our families, and our response has increasingly been been to organize to fight against the systems that are responsible for spreading them!

I am an organizer with the Coalition Advocating for Pesticide Safety (CAPS) — a Tulare County-based group made up of community residents, groups, and organizations. CAPS is one concrete way that local residents are building power to address pesticide drift and the negative health impacts related to long-term pesticide exposure such as the disruption of brain development, autism, and lowering IQs in children.

With community leaders at the helm, CAPS focuses on short-term pressure campaigns, as well as bigger efforts at the state-level to ensure that our local and state governments put the strongest health protections into place. CAPS has helped elevate the intersectionality of environmental justice, and galvanized the collective power of resources, energy, ideas, vision, and lived experience.

As CAPS started meeting with local decision-makers more frequently, the need for reflective representation in the governing bodies at different levels in our county became evident to me, and I felt a personal need to engage in a larger way. Coincidentally or not, this was around the same time that the HEAL Food Alliance opened up applications to its School of Political Leadership (SoPL). I am glad I applied.

Part 2: The HEAL SoPL Experience

The HEAL School of Political Leadership not only provided me with immediate tangible tools to build power at the hyper-local level, but also helped me understand the bigger vision of creating an equitable food system, and how my work was part of that vision. My participation has helped me see that collective power comes from the recognition of the intersectionality of our work, and a shared vision can bring us together to create the systemic disruption we need to shift the dominant power dynamic. I say this with the premise that change is not handed over, it is obtained. The HEAL SoPL has helped me in my own process of healing, connecting my work to the grand vision of an equitable food system, and has given me the opportunity to see how ideas are put into action.

Healing is part of the Experience

In the opening SoPL session this past January in Delano, CA, members of the SoPL cohort talked about trauma and healing. It was the first time that I heard this used in the given context. Trauma? Healing? At first, I wasn’t sure what to make of the terms, but as my peers shared more on their experiences, I came to realize that healing can be an act of liberation, that the trauma from my lived experience needed addressing, not suppression. This was also a recurring theme for me at our second session in Cleveland, Ohio, but was more pronounced at our third SoPL session at the Tierra Negra Farms in Durham, North Carolina, when each cohort member ventured out into farmland that had undergone deep trauma but was in the process of healing. Talking about trauma and healing is new to me, but is now something that I am actively conscious of thanks to my SoPL experience.

Collective Power

Being part of HEAL’s School of Political Leadership has been instrumental in deepening my understanding of food systems work. Before joining the SoPL family, I was organizing with mothers who were holding it down and fighting back against toxic pesticides—or as chemical companies say, “crop protection tools”—in California’s Southern San Joaquin Valley. These mothers and their families are are community residents that are also part of the food system, and unfortunately, they often experience firsthand how the capitalist food system prioritizes monetary gains over people’s lives.

HEAL’s vision of an equitable food system addressed at the 2nd SoPL session at HEAL’s member Summit in Cleveland, Ohio confirmed my local-level experience, and was also a turning point for me. The discussions in Cleveland around what an equitable food system looks and how we get there complimented my vision that in order to address all the wrongs in my region, all the bad that happens in our lives, it is imperative to understand that there is no coincidence in the way our lives unfold. We live — often without consent –forced realities of oppression packaged in ways that make these realities seem ‘normal.” (Take for example, pesticide applications in summer months when unincorporated communities shut their windows, keep their kids inside, in the futile attempt to prevent pesticides from entering their homes.) Yet, what HEAL’s Platform for Real Food addresses, and what SoPL provides, is a collective consciousness that touches on trauma, healing, and how to galvanize the badass work being done throughout the nation to create a paradigm shift. HEAL’s recognition that change does not happen with one organization, group, or individual, and instead, change, happens when we all come together with our lived experiences, has been a profound lesson. This School of Political Leadership is a revolution in action, and indicative of thriving resilience in times when we need to come together.

Grand Vision in Building Blocks – the Fourth SoPL Session

HEAL SoPL Session 4 in Minneapolis, MN

It has been a few weeks since I was in Minneapolis, Minnesota with the SoPL family for our fourth SoPL session. During the weekend there, the cohort had a chance to learn more about the awesome work that fellow SoPL leader Mia Ulysse’s organization, Appetite for Change, was doing in Northside Minneapolis. We also discussed the base-building model presented by Mark Schultz and Johanna Rupprecht from Land Stewardship Project, and we were inspired by Montha Chum and Ched Nin from RELEASE MN 8, an immigrant rights group, as they shared their story with us. Personally, the session in Minneapolis helped me see how the idea of collective power at the local level is real and possible.

Like the other cities and places I visited through my participation with SoPL, Minneapolis was another important building block in preparing me with experience to be even more intentional in my work. The previous sessions instilled in me the idea of equitable food system, and Minneapolis helped cement that by showcasing how that plays out in real life. I now see how each SoPL session serves as a building block to first get us grounded, offer trainings, introduce us to experienced leaders, and in this most recent session, show us how change starts with the recognition of our collectiveness. SoPL has not only been life-changing for me, but it also has given me a family.

Part 3: My Final Thoughts

So where do I go from here? I want to go back to the moment I realized that we lacked reflective representation in my region. Community organizing and movement building is important but through this experience, I have been convinced that we need community residents in office; we need people willing to carry a platform that addresses real people and real concerns. We need, as my compadre put it, a community-based political approach. Change in my region starts with running for local positions; it starts with recognizing people power. And if we venture into creating political change, we must continue to build a base.

SoPL has not only introduced me to awesome leaders from different parts of the country and provided me with a concrete platform, vision, and trainings to develop campaigns; it has reignited in me the belief that change is possible in current times. I am contributing to an equitable food system every time I got out into the fields, to people’s homes, and stand with mothers asking for health protections. And I am unapologetic about it!

The post Creating a community-based political approach: How my HEAL School of Political Leadership experience is shaking up Central Valley organizing! appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

Art by @meloniousfunk, Melanie Cervantes

Yesterday, prisoners across the United States launched a nation-wide strike demanding an end to prison slavery, poor living conditions, and death by incarceration. The strike began on the death anniversary of George Jackson, a former Black Panther and a leading voice of the 1970s prison movement, and is expected to last for 19 days, ending on the anniversary of the Attica prison uprising.

The strike was called in response to the death of seven incarcerated individuals and a prison-wide lockdown resulting from inhumane living conditions at Lee Correctional Institution in South Carolina in April.

In a statement made by members of the organizing group Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, ten demands were listed, including a call to end compulsory labor for meager wages, a widespread practice in the U.S. prison system that strike organizers call a modern form of slavery. The call demands “An immediate end to prison slavery. All persons imprisoned in any place of detention under United States jurisdiction must be paid the prevailing wage in their state or territory for their labor.”

Source: HEAL Food Alliance

Over 30,000 incarcerated people work in farming or food-related positions, many making less than a dollar a day, often under difficult labor conditions. In some cases, these incarcerated workers are producing or preparing food for consumption in their prison facility, and in others, they are harvesting produce or manufacturing value-added products for profit-driven corporations. These practices are rampant across the prison system, in public and private prisons, including immigrant detention centers, and is a legacy of the U.S. slave economy.

The HEAL Food Alliance & Food Chain Workers Alliance are united in solidarity with incarcerated people who are courageously engaging in work stoppages and hunger strikes. We support the full demands of the prisoners (listed below) and call on our allies in labor, farming, and food justice to do the same.

Full list of Demands:
1.  Immediate improvements to the conditions of prisons and prison policies that recognize the humanity of imprisoned men and women.
2.  An immediate end to prison slavery. All persons imprisoned in any place of detention under United States jurisdiction must be paid the prevailing wage in their state or territory for their labor.
3.  The Prison Litigation Reform Act must be rescinded, allowing imprisoned humans a proper channel to address grievances and violations of their rights.
4.  The Truth in Sentencing Act and the Sentencing Reform Act must be rescinded so that imprisoned humans have a possibility of rehabilitation and parole. No human shall be sentenced to Death by Incarceration or serve any sentence without the possibility of parole.
5.  An immediate end to the racial overcharging, over-sentencing, and -parole denials of Black and brown humans. Black humans shall no longer be denied parole because the victim of the crime was white, which is a particular problem in southern states.
6.  An immediate end to racist gang enhancement laws targeting Black and brown humans.
7.  No imprisoned human shall be denied access to rehabilitation programs at their place of detention because of their label as a violent offender.
8.  State prisons must be funded specifically to offer more rehabilitation services.
9.  Pell grants must be reinstated in all US states and territories.
10. The voting rights of all confined citizens serving prison sentences, pretrial detainees, and so-called “ex-felons” must be counted. Representation is demanded. All voices count.

The post HEAL & FCWA Joint Statement: We Declare Solidarity with the 2018 Prison Strike appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

Last month the HEAL School of Political Leadership (SoPL) held our third session in Durham, North Carolina. Durham was a natural fit for us – HEAL has a wealth of members and allies in the state who are engaging in important movement work every day, an we were excited to learn from their on-the-ground organizing and experience, as well as reconnect with some of the visionary farmers and trainers that we met when we hosted our first HEAL Summit in Raleigh in 2017.

After our SoPL leaders and trainers arrived and settled into their digs in Durham, we kicked off our weekend together over a shared meal and words of wisdom from local movement leaders and HEAL allies:

• Savi Horne from the Land Loss Prevention Project
• Naeema Muhammad from the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network
• Shorlette Ammons, Center for Environmental Farming Systems
• Philip & Dorothy Barker from Operation Spring Plant (and HEAL’s Steering Council!)

The HEAL SoPL cohort spent the weekend in Durham, NC building community, deepening their knowledge of North Carolina’s diverse food & farm systems, and learning from one another. Photos by Mathew Ramirez Warren

We were privileged to hear from each one of these leaders about their history of work in the region, and discussed the ongoing political challenges and campaigns for food systems transformation in North Carolina.

The following day, the cohort took a deep dive into understanding the key elements of campaign messaging with Jessica Byrd from Three Point Strategies and the Movement for Black Lives. Jessica graced us with her expertise and wisdom around developing communications strategies for the cohort’s respective campaigns, and each SoPL leader got a chance to practice and refine the stump speeches they had been working on since the first SoPL session in Delano, CA.

We closed out our training with a grounding trip to Tierra Negra Farms, part of the Earthseed Collective in Durham, NC. Tierra Negra’s vision is to develop a community-based, sustainable food system by reshaping the relationships that surround food. As stewards of the land, the folks at Tierra Negra make it a point to honor in all aspects of their work the land and lives that were stolen as a consequence of white settler colonialism. Today, Tierra Negra’s stewardship is laying the ground for cooperation, racial justice and agricultural sustainability in the region.

As we walked the green farmland, each of us had time to reflect on the history of the earth on which we were grounded — histories of the indigenous tribes who originally inhabited and farmed the land, their genocide in the hands of European settlers, and the subsequent enslavement of black people that produced the enormous wealth for the Southern elite. Understanding and naming these histories are so important for contextualizing the current political moment we are all living in, and for laying the foundation for a new political movements that addresses the root causes of our destructive systems.

The SoPL crew will carry these histories with us as we continue position ourselves to drive real political change, and to move forward a collective vision and in values of what we believe our food and farm systems should look like.

Our next Session will take place in Minneapolis, Minnesota on September 14-16. Stay tuned for more updates!

Jay Conui is HEAL’s Political Leadership Coordinator.  Jay comes to HEAL with over 20 years of experience working in social justice movements and national liberation struggles, including training grassroots organizers and movement leaders to embody their leadership commitments and visions for social justice through the use of somatics. Read more about Jay

The post The Third HEAL SoPL: Moving Forward Our Collective Vision & Values appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.