Feeding Justice: Why Food Justice is at the Heart of Our Mission
Feeding Justice: Why Food Justice is at the Heart of Our Mission
“We don't have to live in a world where there's hunger. We don't have to live in a world where there's houselessness. We don't have to live in a world where our kids aren't in safe places when we go to work. We can build these things if we demand them.” — Matt Newell-Ching, Senior Manager of Public Policy
What does food justice look like?
When we say food justice, we are talking about a world where…
Parents only have to ask “What should I make for dinner tonight?” and never “Can I afford to make dinner tonight?”
Indigenous First Foods — like camas root, salmon, and shellfish — are protected and available to Indigenous communities.
Farmers and farm workers are paid a living wage. Nourishing food is available on every city block, in every small town, in every suburb.
Indigenous communities use traditional cultural practices to steward and protect the land.
Children never have to get through a school day on an empty stomach.
This is what we mean when we talk about food justice. When we work toward food justice we work toward a future in which high-quality, culturally relevant food is easy to find and affordable for all — no matter your zip code. Where every person working with food — from the people who grow and harvest it to the people who put it on our shelves — makes a living wage and works under safe, fair conditions. Where the food we put on our plates does not harm people or the planet.
“I don't think that doing farm labor is bad or inherently bad. What is bad is that we don't value the labor that goes into farming and growing the food that goes to people's tables. It’s important to me, as a farmer, to work towards creating a future in agriculture that is more humane. That recognizes the value of people's labor and pays people for their labor.” — Gonzalo Garcia Reyes, Founder, Lomita Farm
What does food justice mean for food banking?
Food pantries and hot meals sites are crucial resources. We will do everything we can to make sure our communities have access to them. But emergency food assistance was never meant to be a long-term solution. We have had our doors open for over forty years and still, one in eight Oregonians is experiencing hunger. We cannot end hunger by only providing emergency food assistance. That’s why Oregon Food Bank connects people to food while also working to change what keeps people in poverty, like the high cost of healthcare and housing. We know we can’t end hunger with food alone. As wealth inequality grows and power is concentrated in the hands of very few, too many of us are feeling the squeeze of trying to make ends meet.
Bryan Stevenson wrote, “The opposite of poverty is not wealth.The opposite of poverty is justice.” Food is a human right. There is no good reason anyone in Oregon should be experiencing poverty and hunger. That’s why our work to end hunger means working toward food justice.
At Oregon Food Bank, we commit to food justice inside our organization by:
- Paying our staff a living wage. No one working to end hunger should go hungry.
- Hiring people with lived experience of hunger. Those of us who have experienced hunger know the best solutions to hunger. We are motivated to end hunger because we know what it feels like, because it means making the lives of our families, friends and neighbors better.
- Centering those most impacted by hunger in every decision we make. Black, Indigenous, and all People of Color, immigrants and refugees, trans and gender expansive individuals (including Two-Spirit folks), and single moms and caregivers disproportionately experience hunger. Leaders from these communities inform Oregon Food Bank’s legislative priorities and funding priorities.
And we commit to food justice in our statewide work by:
- Advocating for change at the local, state and federal levels: There’s no one better to name policy solutions to hunger than those of us who have experienced it firsthand. The Oregon Food Bank Policy Leadership Council sets Oregon Food Bank’s policy agenda. Representing urban, rural and suburban communities from Adams to Grande Ronde, Ontario to Astoria, this 16-member statewide body brings an incredible depth of local leadership and lived experience to our vision. The Council’s most recent change platform included housing for all, economic and worker justice, immigrant justice and more.
- Building community power: Alongside community leaders, legislators and social justice activists, we work toward justice on many fronts. Food justice, healthcare, housing, anti-racism, criminal justice, reproductive justice and trans rights are all connected. Learn more about how food justice is connected to other social justice work in our Hunger and Humanity blog series.
- Supporting Indigenous Sovereignty — Indigenous communities face much higher rates of hunger, health problems and environmental harm — all rooted in the long history of stolen land and pollution of their air and water. At Oregon Food Bank, we call for the decolonization of food systems, including the protection of First Foods. We call for Land Back to Indigenous communities. And we value and uplift Indigenous knowledge and cultural practices as an important part of food justice.
“We're the original land tenders here. We had lived here for thousands of years and found a way to live here in harmony with our ecosystem and our fellow beings. It's been difficult to realize that all this land was stolen Native land, and I also have to pay over a half a million dollars to access some land that would make this farm viable and successful forever. It's something I hopefully can pass on to the next generation of farmers.” — Michelle Week, x̌ast sq̓it, Good Rain Farm
Food justice means our communities have the power to shape our own food systems — deciding what we grow, how we share it and what we eat.
Together, we’re building a future where everyone has the food they need to thrive — because food is a human right.
