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| This is as close as I got to the First Family...or the famed White House Garden. |
Last week I was one of 82 people, representing 21 organizations at the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable and White House Briefing. My place at the table came through my connection as an alumna of JOIN for Justice, where I earned my organizing chops.
As if it weren't enough pressure to be a currently former community organizer representing my work putting food deserts on the map in Nashville as part of Re/Storing Nashville and forwarding access to affordable healthy food through the Nashville Healthy Corner Store Initiative, I was the only person attending from Tennessee, and likely the only Southerner in the room. That said, I did everyone proud.
Following Mara Vanderslice Kelly's briefing, I presented her with the Re/Storing Nashville toolkit, "From Charity to Justice," which was created to shepherd congregations of multiple faiths to understand food inequity and work to change the current norm. She was impressed and anxious to pass it along to her counterpart in the USDA working on food access and the faith community. We also discussed the importance of a positive campaign to work towards change collaboratively, rather than fighting against anything.
As the day wore on, I was able to connect with some of the most passionate social change makers in the Jewish community working on universal issues: food justice, affordable housing, reproductive rights and worker rights
Our break-out groups proved to be both informative and engaging, and allowed for more in-depth discussions with administration officials who were bringing our issues and ideas to the White House. As a member of the food justice group, I brought to light the need to address xenophobia and structural racism that currently plague our food system and obstruct access to affordable healthy food for so many. My suggestion was that the administration support local efforts to legalize backyard chickens, community gardens and other means to encourage sustainable urban and rural agriculture.
One of the the key issues on the table was also the re-authorization of the Farm Bill which is slated to expire at the end of December 2012. While the text of the Farm Bill can be daunting, some of the topics on the table last week included: funding locally grown produce directly for disaster relief, sustaining S.N.A.P. benefits and programs, and cutting commodity crop subsidies in favor of supporting new farmer programs, and fruit and vegetable production.
I do not pretend to be an expert on the Farm Bill, but it is clear that if this piece of legislation is about more than just farms, and we should all be paying attention.
Upon returning from Washington, I began immediately to work on community seders at Congregation Sherith Israel, witnessing the joy of Passover and the greater joy of diners as they dug into the festive meal. The line "Let all who are hungry come and eat" rang especially true for me, as I shared parsley grown in my home garden and the synagogue's garden. I look forward to making that phrase into a sign with my Sunday School class...and then planting our summer crops.
