The Food Sovereignty Fund: investing in shared abundance

Originating in a year’s worth of community conversations and resource sharing, Glynwood’s Food Sovereignty Fund has been contracting small-scale farmers from historically marginalized backgrounds to supply fresh, nutrient-dense, culturally significant food to frontline food access programs since 2020. To date, more than 230,000 pounds of vegetables, fruits, dairy, meat, and poultry have been distributed, and in 2023 approximately 15,000 households received food through the program. In 2024, the Food Sovereignty Fund will support and facilitate partnerships between approximately forty farms and food access programs. Critical elements of the program that will be discussed are the process for contracting farms and reporting deliveries, building and operating refrigerated “mini-hubs” for aggregation and distribution of food, and implementing language justice practices with the program cohort. This panel features the experts on the ground (farmers, organizers, food pantry managers) who designed and implement this program. It will also preview the forthcoming Food Sovereignty Fund toolkit that summarizes challenges, lessons learned, and suggested best practices for others to adopt and replicate this program in their communities.

2:00 p.m.

QT*BIPOC-led Food Supply Chains: Disrupting Racism in NYS Food Systems

In recent years, it has become clear that systematic racism has a negative impact on New York’s agriculture and food systems. In New York, nearly 97.7% of producers reporting full ownership of farm operations identify as white. As a result, of New York’s 57,865 farmers, only 1.2% are Queer and Trans and Black, Indigenous and other farmers of color (QT*BIPOC). White farmers are also the only demographic group with an average size, net cash farm income, and farm-related income higher than the state average of $42,875, according to the 2017 Census of Agriculture. Additionally, diet-related diseases are the leading cause of death in Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color in NY in the last two decades. Thus, a disconnect between culturally appropriate food produced by the farmers with the ancestral knowledge of those crops and its accessibility, both physically and economically, has decreased food and nutrition security, rural economic development, and environmental sustainability. In this panel, we will learn more about the collaborative approaches and partnerships developed by emergents QT*BIPOC-led food supply chains grounded in solidarity economy and food sovereignty.

3:00 p.m.