The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the inequities of our current food system. Returning to the lands, not just by physical proximity, but through a more intertwined relationship between land and community, is a form of resistance and resilience. This can be achieved through equitable land access but there’s a gap between the information people have and the information people need. The policies, procedures and resources of sixteen public land holding entities were analyzed to facilitate land access in Chicago. From this research emerged themes that are not only applicable to Chicago, but provide lessons to be applied throughout the country.
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Publication tags: Field Reports - Community Food Security, Food Systems and Agriculture
Riani is from Silver Spring, Maryland, and graduated cum laude from Wake Forest University in May of 2020 with a B.A. in Politics and International Affairs with minors in Latin American Studies and Sociology. During her undergraduate career, her long-standing interest in social justice developed into a passion for food security, community engagement and public policy. She recently served as an AmeriCorps intern for her local Campus Kitchen, coordinating the USDA National Summer Food Service Program and ensuring the proper maintenance of food donation and distribution systems. As an Emerson Fellow, she hopes to amplify marginalized voices and create more equitable systems.
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Chicago Food Policy Action Council (CFPAC) co-develops, facilitates, advocates for, and supports implementation of policies that advance food justice and food sovereignty in Chicago and across the region. CFPAC envisions a food system where all Chicagoans, regardless of race, class, gender, and/or social identity, have the right to healthy and culturally-appropriate food produced through community-driven, ecologically regenerative, and economically viable processes. The Council recognizes the history and modern maintenance of structural racism in Chicago and across the country that have led to massive inequities in land access, food business ownership, food security, and political power along lines of racial identity. CFPAC works to address these inequities and dismantle racist structures in the food system by building local political power, supporting frontline workers throughout the food system, and facilitating Black/Brown partnerships and understanding.
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