SUSTAINABILITY JUSTICE: FOOD, WATER, AND LAND
When the ACSJL began, there was already a well-established food movement on campus. Students wanted sustainably sourced foods. The concern of the ACSJL was that the movement was made up almost exclusively of white students, staff, and faculty. The ACSJL understood that to transform a good food movement into a food justice movement required a deeper understanding of labor, class, and race.
The ACSJL worked with Alison Geist, ED of the Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) and Dr. Amelia Katanski, who were already involved in this movement. Dr. Katanski received a faculty fellowship to turn her research of wild rice culture into a broader campus-wide project. She brought well-known sustainability activist Winona La Duke to campus and held a pre-Columbian meal event.
In addition, the ACSJL invited Dara Cooper, well known Black food justice activist, to be a visiting fellow for an entire quarter. The ACSJL then held a series of food justice salons where students, faculty, and staff of all races and ethnicities shared their own food stories and where migrant labor activists shared their struggles.
In the end, a stronger more justice-centered food movement emerged and is now connected to growing movements in Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. Because of this, a hoop house was created, courses on farming are now taught in the ACSJL and food justice activists such as Palestinian seed-keeper Vivien Sansour and Chicago-based Black-led Sweetwater were brought to campus by the Just Food Collective.
As you will see below, because the ACSJL has a fully functioning kitchen, cooking and food-centered community-building gatherings occurred often. You will also see how we served as a home for the Kalamazoo College Climate Action Network and amplified global sustainability movements such as the Dalia from the West Bank of Palestine, the Forest Dwellers from South Asia, and connecting these global movements with regional farmers.
Food Justice Salons
The ACSJL provided key leadership to the food justice movement on campus in 2012—13 which led to massive changes on campus.
In collaboration with the Center for Civic Engagement, Farms to K, and Migrant Workers Rights and Action (MIRA) a series of Food Justice Salons were held that built on a campus-wide conversation on just, local and sustainable food. National leaders such as Winona La Duke and Dara Cooper shared knowledge to provide context. As a result: the K College dining services contract went out for bid for the first time in 40 years. The selection process was transparent and more open to campus-wide involvement. A just food assessment criteria was developed which led to a new service provider. The first change in 40 years.
Kalamazoo College Climate Action Network (KCCAN)
The ACSJL became a regular home for many student organizations. Here are images of convenings organized by KCCAN.
“The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership had a significant impact on me while a student at Kalamazoo College, and the Center’s philosophy and teachings still influence the way I approach my life and work now. As a recipient of the Social Justice Leadership Award, ACSJL helped me afford tuition at Kalamazoo College. While at K College, I attended numerous trainings and events sponsored by ACSJL. Additionally, with support from the Social Justice Leadership Fund and the SIP Research Stipend, I was fortunate to learn from Grace Lee Boggs in Detroit and explore how US study abroad programs impact host communities through my SIP research in Oaxaca, Mexico. After graduation, ACSJL invested in my professional development by welcoming me as an Arcus Center Advisory Board member. Without the ACSJL, I would be a different person. ACSJL showed me that social justice is more than a moment, but rather a commitment to living life infused with a vision of a more just world. ACSJL demonstrated how to translate values into action by fostering social justice opportunities in systemic and structural ways. These are lessons that I try to incorporate in my work, and values I seek to model. For me and many others, ACSJL has provided space, resources, and relationships to develop ourselves as people, to make mistakes, ask questions, and build our social justice leadership skills. I am incredibly grateful to ACSJL for their continued dedication to making our world a better place.”
— Mariah Hennen, K’15
Anika Sproull (L) researched and wrote her Senior Individualized project (SIP) on food justice. The title of her SIP was Unjust, Unsustainable, Unhealthy, but not Unfixable: The Multidimensional Disconnect Between People and their Food that Enables the Exploitation of People and the Natural Environment
“Very related to my work with the Just Food Collective. Talking with WMU students about food traditions. Every time I grocery shop. Being more open minded. Gratitude and abundance-based, rather than scarcity. Connections between health and race and place and capitalism. Antiracist team for PFC. I am a chef and will always be thinking about cultural impact. I am going to reflect a lot on my cultural relationship with food and share my reflections with my community. Lots of applications. insight to culture. I think it helped me start to reflect again about centering my food practice and understanding personal culture. Learn more about indigenous/local traditions. Buy locally. Food justice = racial justice. I will apply this in the work I do with the food co-op. I would apply what I learned while going grocery shopping and volunteering. Organizing work - bringing a variety of healthy foods to meetings/events - limiting participants to bring a traditional family dish. In training and organizing. I continue to open my eyes and heart and engage as I'm able. Personally I want to continually try to connect with and discover my culture/identity especially with food. I think as a young person coming up in this world it is most applicable to my life. How I will continue in my journey and learning my place. How I can be the best advocate as a mixed individual for all parties. How to foster positive movings forward. Helpful insight and knowledge to me as I integrate into my own food culture. Think more about where non-local foods come from. Getting others to understand that there is a problem. I will continue to apply myself to working in food justice and taking steps to end hunger. Think more intentionally about where my food is coming from and culture taken/lost in the process. This workshop helped me root myself in my own history more firmly so I can have steadier footing to keep working in the local food movement. Talking with WMU students about food traditions. I work with native plant organizations and community food-forest gardens. How I view local food. I will incorporate this information into my choices of food purchases.”
“Grew in terms of how I understand cultural appropriation. More intersectional, community, and story based, personal and intimate. Gratitude! More connecting dots. ? Reinforced and pumped up already held convictions. Made me reflect on the impact of historical oppressive systems on modern food culture. grew. Yes. Good self-reflection. Not much. I am unsure yet. Food justice is something I needed to know more about. My understanding grew in the connection between colonialism and food systems. I learned more on the effects of food fads. Culture (including connections to food) is systematically stripped through Western Imperialism Colonialism and industrial capitalism. Concept of "starved soul" was enlightening. Great breakdown of components of industrial agriculture. I better understand the disconnect of people from their food culture. I am pushed to think more critically about my relationship to food. Deeper conversation into this topic shows the connection to other social justice issues—food disparity, access, corporate control, etc. I am a consumer who cares about ethics, but didn't think about how my purchases may drive costs up for indigenous people. Realizing that this thing is huge. It gave me a way to connect with others and share a space, learn more about the effects of colonialism and imperialism. Resurfaced the thinking about the interconnectedness of social change and food. It raised important questions without giving away answers. Understanding food as a process. The food system can be very oppressive—it needs change.”
Yasi Shaker became very involved in food and environmental justice while on campus and brought the very well-known Vivien Sansour to the ACSJL. The title of Yasi’s SIP was Experiences of Students of Color with Environmentalism on Kalamazoo College’s Campus.
On November 15, 2016, the Mayor of Kalamazoo Bobby Hopewell, signed a proclamation in support of the uprising in North Dakota against the Dakota Pipeline. The ACSJL held the community-wide Day in Solidarity with NODAPL which led to the proclamation.
Global Food, Water, and Land Activists
Dozens of Global Food, Water, and Land Activists have visited Kalamazoo College as part of Global events in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2018. Some visited classes, some met with local and regional partners, and most created ongoing relationships with the ACSJL. The photos to the right represent the Dalia Association of the West Bank (2013) which is a grassroots organization of Palestinian women that creates innovative water access solutions when water is denied by the Israeli government to their area. The second set is the Forest Dwellers (2015) an organization inspired by a community of marginalized South Asians, whose historic and normal practices are saving their forest and modeling sustainability. The third set is from organizations attending the Towards a Futureland With/Out - ¿Borders? convening in Fall 2018. Participants from Africa, the Pacific, Latin America, and the US visited regional grassroots farms in the Detroit and Chicago areas.
Numerous faculty, staff, and students taught courses and built community in the ACSJL.
Slow Farming: Resilient, Just, and Joyful Agriculture
“I LOVE meeting in Arcus because the space itself unsettles classroom norms and helps students more easily move out of their conditioned ‘student’ roles to become co-creators of the class. And this isn't just because of the physical building but also how the Arcus staff has created a welcoming space that students feel comfortable in and feel ownership over. Being able to meet in a space where students feel ‘in charge’ and at home immediately shifts the class dynamics. In this class, I ask students to plan and facilitate class sessions. During the years that I have taught the class in Arcus, I have observed how the space has inspired students to be more creative in planning these class sessions. I think my class has used every area of the building except for the office space as students have chosen different parts of the space to best suit the activities they wanted to do with the class. And having the kitchen available so that we can cook for each other throughout the class has been such a gift—a gift that has allowed us to give each other the gift of sharing food.”
— Amy Newday, Kalamazoo College Faculty, Farmer
