Author: Haley Gray
Plate to belly, belly to mind, mind to community. Each October, the coalition of student groups behind Food Justice Month coordinate programming to show just how far the nourishing power of food can reach.
The groups, spanning Campus Dining, Urban and Environmental Policy Institute, Veg Club and community partners like Food Forward, a Pasadena-based organization that harvests excess fruit from private properties to donate to California food pantries, convene each September under the leadership of Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (ORSL) Director Rev. Susan Young.
Young sees food justice issues as deeply relevant to her work at ORSL.
“Our office sees food justice issues as important moral, ethical and social justice issues,” Young said via email.
The heart and soul of this year’s Food Justice Month, though was Campus Dining Student Intern for Sustainability Research and implementation Dylan Bruce (sophomore), who spearheaded the planning and coordination of the month.
“Food Justice Month is such an important opportunity for activists to come together,” Bruce said. “Food is universal to everyone – something everyone can connect on – and there are huge inequities throughout the food chain, representing problems ranging from environmental justice, to labor rights, to hunger, to waste. As an essential necessity, food is the connection between all these issues and more.”
The idea to host a month of programming centered on these concerns was conceived six years ago. ORSL had taken a group of students to New Orleans to participate in rebuilding efforts following Hurricane Katrina. The students were inspired by the community gardens that were sprouting up in the wrecked city. Not only did the gardens provide fresh, healthy food, but they also created a valuable opportunity for teens to build job skills through their involvement.
Awed by the garden’s impact on far more than just hungry bellies, the students wanted to spread the word of good food to the Occidental campus. The tradition has endured and evolved. Planners were particularly pleased with turnout at the project’s capstone event, Good Food Day, on Oct. 24.
“This year, we decided to do less events but to work hard on these events. And, many of the events [were] late in the month. I think that strategy has been very helpful,” Young said.
Good Food Day is a nationally observed day of recognition of nutrition and sustainability issues. Student groups coordinated an Occidental Good Food Day event in the JSC Quad. Programming board provided a free farmers market with fresh produce from Organix Market on Eagle Rock Boulevard, where two hundred students could fill bags with fruits and vegetables free of charge. Bill Spencer, owner of Windrose Farms, a bio-dynamic farm four hours north of campus that supplies the Marketplace with apples, came to pass out samples of his produce.
“To me food justice is one of these issues that has in the last 5 years started to get more attention,” professor of sociology John Lang said, who has been involved in helping plan Food Justice Month events since the program came to Occidental. “Just looking at the idea of, how our food is ethically raised, and produced, and we actually step back and look at the people who are producing our food and distributing our food and serving our food and realizing it’s hard to have a just food system when I’m simply concentrating on what’s on my plate. And I think the food justice movement has really opened up broadly as this discussion of people involved.”
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