2019 Food Sovereignty Prize Winners Honored on October 10
Published on October, 00 2019
From left, Lisa Griffith, Rev Audrey Hollis, and Mary Hanson Harrison, all speakers at the October 10th ceremony for the 2019 Food Sovereignty Prize winners.
By Jan Corderman
On October 10, 2019, the Food Sovereignty Prize winners for 2019 were honored in a ceremony anchored by the US Food Sovereignty Alliance’s Midwest Region as part of their membership assembly in Ferguson, Missouri. Urban Tilth (Richmond, CA) is this year’s domestic honoree and Plan Pueblo a Pueblo (Venezuela) is the international honoree.
In addition to coordinating two school gardens, Urban Tilth operates five community gardens and small urban farms for growing and distributing thousands of pounds of culturally-appropriate produce each year. They offer an Agricultural Park and Riparian Restoration Learning Center with the mission of creating a space in the heart of the most impacted neighborhood in Richmond. Children, teens, and adults can deeply engage in nature with Urban Tilth staff and volunteers beside them.
El Plan Socialista de Producción, Distribución, y Consumo de Alimentos Pueblo a Pueblo (The People to People Socialist Plan of Production, Distribution, and Consumption) started in 2015 with the establishment of a network to bridge rural-urban divides in Venezuela. Plan Pueblo a Pueblo purchases fruits, vegetables, tubers, legumes, basic grains, meat, eggs, and sugar from small producers. Organizers distribute the food to urban consumers at prices more affordable than products sold in conventional markets like street vendors and stores.
Plan Pueblo a Pueblo leaders attended the ceremony virtually. They referenced the crisis Trump created by cutting off food supplies and spoke to how their work has responded to this blockade. Plan Pueblo a Pueblo envisions a ladder of farmers meeting a ladder of community workers to distribute the "real" food they grow with the ladders meeting at the top. Since their inception they have distributed at least one million 700,000 kilos of food to more than 300,000 families. The project includes 200 producers deployed in the states of Trujillo, Lara, Cojedes and Portuguesa, guaranteeing the production of various items.
Former WILPF US President Mary Hanson Harrison spoke about the community the Food Sovereignty Alliance is building around the world as an example of how believing and building WILL change the world. (WILPF US is a member organization). Mary was pleased to have the honor of introducing Urban Tilth's Urban Agriculture Institute Program Manager Adam Boisvert (pictured on the right) and DeAndre Evans, Project Assistant (pictured on left), and to present them with the beautiful award.
Rev Audrey Hollis, founder and director of United People in St. Louis, shared what her organization is doing to address the food desert in her community. Eating healthy and supporting local food producers is made possible through Pop Up Markets they sponsor. They also established an urban garden near the site where Michael Brown Jr., an 18-year-old African American man, was fatally shot by 28-year-old white Ferguson police officer. That incident sparked protests and a vigorous debate in the United States about the relationship between law enforcement officers and African Americans, the militarization of police, and the use-of-force law in Missouri and nationwide.
Lisa Griffith and Stephen Bartlett from the Food Sovereignty Alliance spoke to the many ways that grassroots social movements confront corporate control over seeds, land, water, labor, knowledge, supply chains, and policymaking.
Earth Dance Farms hosted the Food Sovereignty Alliance's leadership team's meeting following the awards ceremony.
