2023 School of Political Leadership

Through SoPL, the SPROUT NOLA team will work to move forward their current campaign, “A Greener New Orleans.” The campaign centers farmers and growers, and aims to redefine the city’s definition of “blight,” make water and land accessible to farmers and growers, and to create the infrastructure for an Urban Agriculture liaison for the city of New Orleans. The team will also work to grow their collective base building and organizing skills to make sure that the widest possible community of growers are involved in this campaign. This campaign is about making concrete changes to the landscape of New Orleans food and farm policy, but it is also a huge opportunity to build the collective power and organizing capacity of the community.

Through SoPL, the Idaho Justice for Farmworkers team will strengthen their current campaign to protect Idaho’s farm worker community from heat stress, smoke, and pesticide usage. The campaign’s goal is to humanize farmworkers and to include their voices in the fight for climate justice using storytelling and advocacy. The team will also develop a framework to bridge the advocacy and healthcare communities to provide training and medical and mental healthcare to farmworkers.

Building off of their current organizing work, Nourish Colorado will create a campaign to strengthen connections with and between farms, ranches, and communities so that all Coloradans have equitable access to fresh, nutritious foods. Through SoPL the team will also create deep connections within their team and community to organize and advocate for community-led and informed policy change for the 2023 Farm Bill.

Through SoPL, the Southern Roots team will develop an advocacy campaign to demand policymakers and local leaders work with community members and other stakeholders to increase access to nutrient-dense foods, food access and ensure that residents are familiar with the benefits of SNAP, TANF, and WIC. According to Feeding America, the Food Insecurity Rate in Georgia decreased from 14.4% in 2017, to 10.9% in 2020. While this is good news, it does not mean that the issue of food insecurity has been solved. Within these numbers hides a gap of coverage where 51% of people considered to be food insecure are above the SNAP threshold of 130% poverty. Over 388,000 Georgians are food insecure, yet are above the threshold of 185% poverty to receive other nutrition assistance programs. During SoPL, the Southern Roots team will create strategies to address the lack of resources and hold policymakers accountable. Community conversations which elevate the voices of those the team serves will be paramount where there will be dialog surrounding the inequitable distribution of resources for local food systems in the state.