Community news! July 2023
RBAC is officially recruiting 2 Food Justice League Fellows! Join RBAC and local Black & Brown farmers in taking a stand for food justice.
The Farm Fellow position includes busy summers, weekly team meetings, monthly Food Policy Council meetings, and physical work on our partner farms. The Food Policy Council Fellow position includes representing and serving on the council, event planning, policy advocacy, weekly team meetings, and monthly council meetings.
Both positions are part-time (20 hrs/week) $20/hour. Candidates should be between 16-24 years old. This fellowship is prioritizing Black, Brown, and Indigenous youth from South Seattle
Please share with anyone who might be interested, and fill out the form here to apply!
Science: Air quality policy should quantify effects on disparities
New tools can guide US policies to better target and reduce racial and socioeconomic disparities in air pollution exposure
Front and Centered's research and work featured here in Science, written in partnership with collaborators at the University of Washington, University of California-Berkeley, and WE ACT for Environmental Justice.
Get the article here! Since the paper is paywalled, here are the three main takeaways from Front & Centered:
If past trends in America's emission reductions continue into the future, racial-ethnic disparities in exposure will persist even as air pollution concentrations decrease overall.
The Biden Administration’s Climate and Environmental Justice Screening Tool, or CEJST, does not sufficiently address racial-ethnic disparities in exposure to air pollution.
Problems created by racist policies can't be addressed effectively and environmental justice goals will not be met until decision makers examine the racial-ethnic equity implications of regulations and future policies.
Restaurant 2 Garden seeks to systematize hyperlocal composting in the CID
"Today, the garden plays an important role in the neighborhood’s circular economy — a model of production and consumption that involves sharing, reusing, repairing, and recycling existing materials. For many of the gardeners, this resourcefulness is nothing new. It’s just the immigrant mentality. For local young people like Joycelyn Chui, Lizzy Baskerville, and Jennifer Cheung, the garden and the elders’ natural resourcefulness provide an opportunity to reimagine what the future of the CID’s food waste management could look like."
Read the full article from the International Examiner on the work of R2G here!
And for more on R2G and their work read this interview with co-founder Joycelyn Chiu with the City of Seattle's Dept of Neighborhoods, on their efforts to create a hyper-local system where food waste from eateries in the Chinatown International District are brought to the Danny Woo Community Garden, composted on site, and distributed to the garden members. The majority of gardeners at Danny Woo are seniors and immigrants or refugees.
RBAC has a new podcast episode out! The two co-founders of RBAC, Gregory Davis and David Sauvion, talk about all the awesome work David has done at RBAC!
Listen to the full podcast series here!
Event Recap: Piloting Community Innovation and Building New Economic Models
"The stars of the event, the 2022 NEW Frontline Community Fellows, followed Deric and Sherry with ten-minute presentations about their Fellowship projects. Maria Ramirez spoke about Duwamish Valley Affordable Housing Coalition’s research on cooperative, community-owned housing and its potential to rival the affordable housing industrial complex. Mario Sanchez and Gavin Amos presented about Food Oasis, their South Seattle-based food hub that provides infrastructure and resources for BIPOC-owned food businesses, from farms to restaurants. Dana Wu and Stephanie Ung spoke about Apsara Palace, a Khmer restaurant in White Center recently acquired by Dana, and their efforts to turn Apsara Palace into a gathering place for the community, in particular to connect Khmer youth and elders through Khmer cuisine. Last but not least, Hoda Abdullahi presented about Living Well Kent’s efforts to secure land for immigrant and POC farmers, as well as to organize a food access conference."
Read the entire event recap blogpost at the People's Economy Lab (PEL) website here.
Check out the latest Inside White Center podcast episode, Behind the Creators of Inside White Center Series; Part 1!
Episode Description: Zack, Kimnang and Pat, the elders (soon to be card-carrying AARP members) of the IWC team, went into the studio to have a very real and sometimes raw conversation about their lives in White Center.
Listen to Inside White Center here!
UTOPIA’s Mapu Maia Clinic opens doors in Kent to free gender-affirming care
"Mapu Maia Clinic provides free healthcare, both primary and gender-affirming care in one place. This convenience is what sets the facility apart from other organizations in Washington that offer either sexual health, gender-affirming, or primary care services. By deciding to build a free clinic, the United Territories of Pacific Islanders Alliance (UTOPIA) is now able to serve a larger part of their community: those who are undocumented, houseless, and/or low-income..."
“We just knew what we wanted to build and that we knew we needed it,” said Vaina. “But we have a really, really amazing team and community that keeps supporting us and and we keep encouraging each other. We’re building it from a real genuine place that is from our own lived experiences.”
Little Saigon Park project breaks ground, community celebrates
"On July 6, groundbreaking for Little Saigon Park began. “It was a long time coming,” said Quynh Pham, Executive Director at Friends of Little Sài Gòn. “It was really great to see folks who were part of the original planning committee."
...
“We had to think, ‘How do we create something that can help catalyze community and not just involve the small businesses, but involve the broader community also?’” said Quang Nguyen, one of the original members of the organization. The park will house a gateway featuring local artists, a children’s play area, an amphitheater, and an open lawn with adjacent seating."
Read the full article here!
Indigenous Sovereignty Begins at Birth: A Conversation with Camie J Goldhammer
Seedcast Season 3 Episode 7. Listen here!
“Pregnancy is a natural time to think about, ‘what is it that I'm going to pass down?’ For most of us, that is culture... our spirituality, our language, our food, and our connection to land.”
Parenting is a cultural practice that has the power to heal historical trauma, according to Camie J. Goldhammer (mixed race heritage, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate). She is a birth worker and lactation consultant who is devoted to supporting Indigenous parents - both living on their homelands and in the diaspora. She describes her own spiritual experience of healing her ancestors through her first birthing experience, and the essential role non-parents play in the lives of new parents and families. Camie trains Indigenous doulas and lactation consultants across Turtle Island and is the founding executive director of Hummingbird Indigenous Family Services, an Indigenous agency that serves Indigenous babies and their families.
Inside Seattle Public Schools’ salmon collaboration with the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe
“What happens in this kitchen affects what happens to my tribal fishers,” Ungaro said. “This is more than feeding a good healthy meal to Seattle students. You’re also giving a boost to our tribal fishermen and women. As well as it’s local, and that its carbon footprint is here from the Northwest.”
Chris Iberle, a Food Policy and Programs Strategic Advisor at OED, works in tandem with Smith to make these meals possible. He leads the Healthy Food in Schools Program, which he says supplies fresh and culturally relevant fruits and vegetables to 19 schools and pays for ingredients used in some of SPS’ scratch meals. The program is supported by revenue generated from the City of Seattle’s Sweetened Beverage Tax, a tax on the distribution of sweetened beverages in Seattle...“The impacts are so great,” Iberle said. “It’s better for the kids, it builds a more equitable local food economy, it’s better for the environment. It’s better for communities to reinvest school food purchases in more local ingredients, like Muckleshoot salmon.”
Read on at the International Examiner here.
PHOTO ESSAY | Juneteenth 2023 at Jimi Hendrix Park
"Juneteenth recognizes the day enslaved people in Texas were told on January 19, 1865, by Major General Gordon Granger that they were free — two and half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.
The celebration at Jimi Hendrix Park was part of Africatown’s Summer of Soul series, sponsored by King County Equity Now. The event featured over a hundred vendors, a children’s zone, food, and an incredible entertainment lineup..."
Photos from the celebration from the South Seattle Emerald here.
C.A.M.P. Q Brings Queer Summer Camp to Seattle
"C.A.M.P. (Connecting and Meeting People) Q is a collaboration between Made Space and Queer The Land. Linda Chastine (L.C.), operations and development coordinator for Queer The Land, said the idea came from wanting to hold events that “include the many facets of queer identity, which encompass and center our creativity, and our abundant ways of presenting in the world, and also be a place of restoration and rest and care in terms of social activities.”
Read the full story from the South Seattle Emerald here.
Queer The Land: A Co-Op Challenging The Housing Crisis In Seattle
"“It’s a space of love, openness, and an inviting place,“ Love said. “It’s a place with community members who know how to do a variety of different things so we don’t have to depend on this capitalist f***ed up world if the world does go to shit."
...Pestaño has a clear vision of the future. “I want people to be like, ‘Okay, I don’t need to worry about where I’m gonna stay, I don’t need to worry about what I’m gonna eat… I have a place where people see me for who I am and can accept me. I feel like I can contribute.’“"
Read the full article from the Seattle Medium here.