About Food Justice Working Group

The Food Justice working group is being led by our partner organization Aquidneck Community Table. Food Access and Nutrition directly impact one’s overall health and well-being in many ways. For instance, if adults are hungry, they often cannot function effectively – whether it is to work, or take care of their children. Similarly, most food available at food pantries and inexpensive food outlets are calorie dense and nutrition poor.

Goals:

• Increase the percentage of HEZ residents that eat fruits and vegetables more than once a day from 19% to 24% by March 2024
• Decrease the major structural barriers to HEZ residents’ access to healthy food locally, and challenge those structural barriers, particularly at the local and state level.

OBJECTIVES:

• Through the HEZ-wide needs assessment, consult with HEZ residents on their experience with and barriers to healthy food, and document those experiences and barriers.
• Identify racial-equity dimensions of food access and food justice to widen the group’s focus from food programs to food policies. 
• Identify and share resources (readings, examples/case studies, possibly technical assistance) on the difference between food access and food justice and come to a new shared understanding. 
• Conduct a thorough discussion (possibly with technical assistance/facilitation) about how the working group’s tasks will change as a result of this new understanding.
• Choose policy targets at the local and/or state level and design campaigns to address those policies.
• Establish a sustainable Farmers Market that is affordable, welcomed in and welcoming to the HEZ community, and inclusive, to increase social cohesion within the HEZ. 
• Use open space within the community for HEZ residents to grow their own vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers.