Abraham Paulos reports
WHY, Heifer International, and the Clinton Foundation hosted the second annual Southern Agenda for Change, a workshop aimed at promoting innovative solutions to hunger and poverty and an exchange of ideas about supporting family farms, rural communities and preserving the environment.
The Southern Agenda for Change provided an opportunity for leading humanitarian organizations in the South to share their creative strategies used in the fight against poverty and to build the movement for food justice. Participants also addressed grassroots policy efforts and consider strategic steps for the most promising ideas to be implemented.
The event showcased innovative organizations that are creating change in their communities through ground-breaking work. One of these organizations was South Plains Food Bank in Lubbock, TX, represented by Executive Director David Weaver. Weaver elaborately described the food bank’s resourceful approaches to help people break out of the cycle of poverty. One client in particular was an at-risk youth, who received the guidance and direction she needed in the Food Bank’s GRUB (Growing Recruits for Urban Business) Program. In this program, 14-21 year olds learn life and job skills by working on the food bank’s farm and in its community gardens. The youth earn money by selling their produce through the food bank’s community supported agriculture program.
After an energetic and motivating speech by Frank Taylor from the Mississippi-based Winston County Self-help Association, Bart Brown spoke about the Ozarks Food Harvest (OFH) in Missouri. According to Brown, OFH’s model programs have changed the lives of many rural children, who do not have access to food outside of school. One initiative that is impacting the lives of rural clients in a positive manner is a mobile food pantry, which distributes food out of an old beer truck in towns that are too small to have a full-time pantry. The truck can be set-up anywhere and provides high quality, nutritious foods. Brown also described the Food Bank’s Food for Thought Program, which delivers nonperishable foods in backpacks so that children can have food during the weekend.
The first session ended with moving presentations by Maura McDermott from The Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture followed by Deborah Webb from the Community Farm Alliance. McDermott and Webb talked about innovative policy strategies from the grassroots up.
McDermott explained that when the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture changed its name to the Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, the agency created a Food Policy Council that essentially started a farm-to-school program. The council is made up of farmers, conservationists and educators. After some brainstorming, the group decided to survey the food services directors of Oklahoma's school districts to see if they were interested in finding sources for locally grown food for school lunches. More than half of respondents — approximately 70 percent — said they were interested in buying local produce. The council then produced a directory of farmers from across the state who wanted to sell food to schools. The council started a pilot program with the help of U.S. Department of Defense funding that delivered fresh watermelons from local growers to schools.
Deborah Webb from the Community Farm Alliance, a group that was recently featured in a WHY article, ended the first session with a message of creating real change from the ground up. CFA believes that the people who live the problems know the solutions. This belief was the cornerstone of the approach CFA took to convince Kentucky’s state officials that the allocation of the 2,000 tobacco settlement funds should be directed by those who were affected by the loss of tobacco production. CFA was successful in its advocacy, and during her presentation, Webb described some of the projects an appointed board of eight small farmers was able to implement with the $1.7 billion they were given to distribute during a period of 25 years. Kentucky’s share of the settlement was $3.4 million during 20 years, so even though this was only a small chunk of the funds, the board has been able to build a poultry processing plant and 17 community kitchens in areas that were dependent on tobacco. Webb stated that in CFA’s experience, a small amount of money to many has resulted in greater economic development than giving a large amount to a few.
The second session consisted of break-out discussions, utilizing the Open Space model. Open Space Technology is one way to enable diverse people, in any kind of organization, to create inspired meetings and events. In Open Space, a facilitator explains the process and then participants are invited to co-create the agenda and host their own discussion groups. Discussions were held at designated tables, with each group recording the conversations in a form which was used to distribute or broadcast the proceedings of the meeting. At the end of the day, the full group reconvened for comments and reflection. The result was a powerful and effective strengthening of what is already happening in the food movement such as planning and action, learning and implementing and passion and performance.
The Southern Agenda for Change took a different approach: one focused on the needs of the vast majority of people in the South. It was an agenda — and a dialogue — that involved advocates who are balancing the interests of farm families, rural communities and preserving the environment.
