Thursday, June 24, 2021

The Gates Foundation Discovery Center, South Seattle Emerald and Civic Commons brought together local leaders for a conversation moderated by Rosette Royale, Storyteller + Writer, to discuss food justice and community impact. The event featured a musical performance by Totem Star’s Sabyu!  Learn how YOU can get involved and nourish our communities! 

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FEATURING

• Sara Seelmeyer | Food Security Program Manager, United Way of King County
  Sara leads work to increase access to federal nutrition programs and the emergency food system. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, United Way has delivered groceries to more than 4,000 households weekly, and provided meals to over 2,000 youth. Sara works closely with local, state, and national partners to break down barriers to food security and support a just food system. She is a native of Northern Nevada, a proud AmeriCorps alum, and joined United Way of King County in 2016. Volunteer
  
  
• Joseph Seia | Founder & Executive Director of PICA,  Pacific Islanders Community Association
  Joseph was born in Los Angeles, grew up on Tutuila and Upolu islands with his ‘āiga in Sāmoa and eventually emigrated to Duwamish/Coast Salish Territory with his father Aitulagi Iosefa and his siblings in 1994. He has 15 years of experience in direct service & youth development work, antiracist-community organizing, and nonprofit leadership & administration. Joseph champions systems change work the centers the leadership and history of most impacted communities. He is committed to ending the impacts of systemic racism through coalition building, centering anti-racism principles, and creating inter-generational leadership opportunities to co-design our Beloved Community. Joseph is Fa’afafine – he is a fierce advocate for QTBIPOC communities. He works actively against the political erasure of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) communities and will continue to provide soul labor in re-envisioning what it means for NHPI people to feel cultural belonging. Joseph currently co-chairs the National NHPI Policy Council, and also co-chairs the local Undoing Institutional Racism Collaborative in King County.
  
  
• John Wesley | Founder & Director of Seattle BIPOC Organic
  John is a curator, creative director, and community organizer who is passionate about human-centered design. He is the founder & director of Seattle BIPOC Organic (SBO), a Seattle-based non-profit focused on growing & distributing organic food to underserved communities. SBO incorporates art, culture, and community into everything that they do. This includes arts workshops at their farm, distributing art prints at “hot meal” pop-ups, and creating art zines with healthy recipes in CSA boxes. Art education, Inspiration, and Innovation are key components of his personal philosophy and they are reflected in the growth plans for this new organization. John Wesley’s core beliefs are: 1) Words have transformative power. 2) The road to sustainability begins with “Community.” 3) The future belongs to those who create it.    יְצִירָתִי
  
  
• Sabyu is a musician/producer & singer-songwriter from the island of Saipan. He started learning guitar at 14, and picked up other instruments along the way such as ukulele, bass guitar, drum kit, cajón, piano, and more. Sabyu’s music is inspired by the Pacific Islands & Pacific Northwest. He hopes to spread love and positivity to everyone tuning in. He is currently based in Seattle, WA.

EVENT PARTNERS

• Civic Commons  
• Farestart 
• Teen Feed 
• Feed the People  
• Rainier Vallery Food Bank  Volunteer: http://www.rvfb.org/take-action/volunteer/ 
• Seattle BIPOC Organic 
  

PROGRAM RESOURCES

Learn About Food Justice  

• What is food justice? by Food Print. 
• “When it comes to hunger, understanding is action.” – Check out this Oxfam infographic to understand more about the language of food crises. 
• What is food insecurity? An explanation by Thomson Reuters Foundation. 
• A Food Justice glossary 
• Food Insecurity In The U.S. By The Numbers by NPR  
• Why bring back food education? – An infographic 
   

Watch & Listen 

• The Just Food Podcast – Produced by the Berkeley Food Institute, in partnership with the UC Berkeley Advanced Media Institute at the Graduate School of Journalism, this podcast highlights the dedicated people that push the expansion of justice and health throughout our food systems.  
• Edible Activist Podcast – A podcast where dynamic people of color in the food and agriculture space share personal food journeys, stories and perspectives that stem from the land. 
• Food sovereignty: Valerie Segrest at TEDxRainier – Valerie Segrest, a member of the Muckleshoot tribe and a native nutrition educator talks about how native tribes around the Puget Sound have practiced sustainable balance with its foods for thousands of years. 
• Food Justice: Fixing our broken food system – “Hunger is not about not having enough food. It’s about inequalities in access to resources to grow food, it’s about power and distribution.” by Oxfam America. 
• Food Tank’s 2021 Podcast List – From the backstory of the most popular snack food brands to resources for urban farmers and critical thinking about our food systems, these podcasts help celebrate food culture and build more sustainable food and agriculture systems.  
   

Read Articles 

• “Farming for Change: Black Womxn Farmers Fight The Pandemic With A Food Revolution” and “Farming for Change: Meet the Latinx Women Leading South Park’s New Community Farm” by Sharon H. Chang for South Seattle Emerald 
• “The Black Farmers Collective Grows Food and Community Above I-5” by Erin Wong for Seattle Met 
• “The ‘Food Justice’ Movement: Trying To Break the Food Chains” by Mark Winston Griffith 
• “A Crisis Within A Crisis: Food Insecurity And COVID-19” by Michel Martin for NPR  
• “Community fridges are lifelines for the neighborhoods they serve” by Katherine Oung for Vox. 
   

Advocate & Learn  

• Seven Ways to Fight For Food Justice  
• 24 Organizations Finding Food Justice – Check out a list of organizations using education and community collaboration platforms to advocate for communities’ rights to healthy, culturally appropriate, and resilient food systems.  
• Sign up your class/group for a free “Our Food System: Access & Inequity” education program by the Discovery Center.   
• Get involved with Northwest Harvest  
• Seattle Eater’s guide to food justice, education, and advocacy.