Food Can Be Justice

Years ago, in the 1960s, Black Civil Rights leaders saw that food was a foundation for equity. They started serving free breakfasts to children of color in Oakland. They set up kitchens across the US and at one point they were serving breakfast to tens of thousands of children. Food can be Power, Food can be Justice. The Farm to School movement has its roots in these efforts because we live in a nation of extreme inequities, and as the protests and anger, frustration and violence are showing us, there is a deep injustice towards people of color that has gone on and on and on, and it needs to change.

At Rogue Valley Farm to School, we are working every day to create that change: to increase access to healthy food, to bring forward the voices of those who grow our food, whose backs are breaking under the weight of harvesting food so the rest of us can eat, and oftentimes, not having access to that same food themselves. We are at the very beginning of this journey, and there are many who have come before us whose voices are much more powerful, who have experienced the pain of racism, hatred, inequity and lack of justice. We wish to elevate their voices, and the voices of farmers and farmworkers, school food service staff, and families in our community who are not only working to feed our community but also on the front lines of creating change. Change in how farmworkers are cared for, change in who has access to land, change in how food is distributed, change in how people of color are treated, and that all have stable, reliable access to good, healthy, nourishing food. A healthy breakfast helped to start a movement. It is up to all of us to continue that work. Every day.

As an organization, we have much to learn. As a society, we have much blood on our hands. As a community, we need to work together to create change, and we kneel with all those fighting to create that change. Food can be Justice. Let’s make it so.