check in, 3/7
Will
A check-in about the rad food project. After our first meeting (y'all
got
the notes, right?), we all agreed to reach out to folks we thought
might
fit into our project, particularly community organizers in the city,
to
help us better define what exactly we would be doing with our food
once it
got into the city - how best to distribute it, in a solidarity-not-
charity
style. Hope y'all are reaching out, and continuing to brainstorm about
the
shape of our program - at least early on (food truck/mobile kitchen?
community center grocery distro? church-based distro? cooking classes?
community dinners that are also trainings for foreclosure defense? etc
etc).
Hambone and I have done some reaching out.
-Organizing for Occupation, the group behind the foreclosure-acution
blockades and much other radical housing-is-a-human right work, are
totally down to work with us in some way - the idea discussed so far
being
finding a way that our food distro (whether cooked meals, or whole
produce) be linked in with their organizing of neighborhoods around
eviction defense.
-Occupy Faith, a loose coalition of faith-community leaders (Muslim,
Jewish, Christian, Catholic, Buddhist, others) are interested in our
project - there are some ideas floating around, like using a network
of
church kitchen facilities to store/cook/distribute food; using the
existing communities of congregations as groups to pull into neighbor-
hood
based political work... I was supposed to meet with a rep but she was
arrested today in an OccupyFaith 'bedside prayers' civil disobedience
action in front of Cuomo's NYC offices.
-Mothers on the Move, a Bronx-based CBO, is down to be part of this
project, and ready to engage in figuring out the shape of our program/
s.
Etc. One idea that needs attention sooner: Providing starts from
farms, to
radical community gardens around the city. Need to figure out: what
would
the political/solidarity part of this be? Give starts in exchange for
garden CBOs organizing their membership around foreclosure defense?
Handing out material about OWS and different campaigns?
Do y'all have other ideas? Have you been reaching out to potential
partners, whether on-farm or in-city? Let's stay in touch.
Last thing - I heard that some folks didn't get the invitation to our
RadFood google group. I'll send out another round of invitations, to
this
email list. Please join.
And, let's be in touch! Another meeting in the next week or two will
be good.
Best,
Will