Proposal for Partnership with the University of Kentucky

for W.K. Kellogg Foundation Grant:Field Building and Developing the

Capacity for Sustainability of Community-based Racial Healing and

Racial Equity Efforts

byCentral Kentucky Council for Peace & Justice

Deadline: September 30, 2009

Bringing the Bluegrass Together

• Kellogg will support projects designed to:– Promote racial healing;– Mitigate the effects of structural racism; and,– Help to eliminate institutionalized and structural

racism

• Seeking proposals from community-based organizations

• Will fund up to $400K over three years

Bringing the Bluegrass Together

Kellogg uses the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change to define structural racism:… the system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequity in every key opportunity area, from health, to education, to employment, to income and wealth.

Bringing the Bluegrass Together• CKCPJ proposes to focus on dismantling

structural racism in our food systems• Key components in project proposal:

1. Bolster community-based partnerships (existing and new) to dismantle barriers/inequities artificially constructed by “race”

2. Offer alternative education (including college readiness support and resources) for vulnerable, marginalized youth in the Lexington-Fayette metro area

3. Assure evidence-based analysis of levels of healing for all stakeholders in the project

Bringing the Bluegrass TogetherVision for the Institute for Food & Justice• To get fresh food and vegetables into areas of

the communities of Lexington and Fayette County that lack them

• To learn about the interaction of food systems, communities and health

• To bond with youth and their guardians and families across cultural boundaries in a clear and common task

Bringing the Bluegrass Together

Institute for Food and Justice• Identification and recruiting target audiences:

1. 9th-12th graders who need an alternative educational path and who demonstrate aptitude for leadership and creativity – and their guardians/family and community members

2. Power-holders in Lexington-Fayette County inc., churches, schools, government, business, media

• Orientation to mission and purpose

Bringing the Bluegrass Together

• Learning and Teaching:1. Ceremonial commencement and regular opportunities

for pageantry including music and art2. Personalized learning plans for students, peer mentors,

guardians/families, instructors, University student volunteers and researchers that include improvement in leadership skills and tenets of empowerment

3. Hands-on, problem-solving methodology in program centering on food systems

4. Building community values/attitudes while learning about other cultures

• Digital storytelling

Bringing the Bluegrass Together

• Exit Pathways1. Ceremony of voices of justice – what has been

accomplished and will still be challenged2. Capstone assessments for students,

guardians/families, volunteers and instructors3. Referrals out (next steps for all, including

students entering college or workforce)• Digital stories recycled within the

communities to keep the dialog going, e.g., radio shows, public service announcements

Bringing the Bluegrass TogetherInstitute teaching-learning focusing on Structural Racism and our Food Systems

seed, fertilizer, livestock,

technologies

Infrastructure of RacismUS subsidizes corn imports to Mexico while small farmers pushed off the land; corporate control of seeds through utility patents; 45% of US seeds held by one company; top 10 companies hold 1/3 global seed market

HealingLearning about Amer-Indian seed hybridization/animal bloodstock; land and forest management; irrigation systems; religious significance of natural resources; African crops and tools; African-American inventions

Cultivation, harvesting;

animal husbandry

Infrastructure of RacismDisinvested in communities of color, e.g., communal Hispanic ejidos outlawed, 60% of Black farmers lost their land since 1910; 75% of all farm workers in US born in Mexico with lowest wages of all workers and highest work-related injuries

HealingLearning about small farm ownership; soil sampling and clean water; tool-making and caring for farm animals; safety and machine maintenance; aqua-culture; agrarian communal practices, e.g., quilting bees, barn-raisings

Preparation of food and

containers for marketing and

distribution

Infrastructure of RacismFood processing plants mostly employ non-White immigrant and Black labor esp. in rural areas with unsafe conditions and low wages; X% plastic produced in US is used for disposable packaging

HealingLearning about art and craft of pots and basketry; canning, drying and other food processing; economics of bagging and boxing foodstuffs for transport; marketing and design of packaging for commercial markets

Geography and economics of

transportation and food industry

Infrastructure of RacismGrocery gap: predominantly white communities have 3x the supermarkets than black communities; average grocery store is 2.5x smaller in poor neighborhoods and ½ the inventory is more expensive than in an upscale neighborhood

HealingLearning about US transportation hubs, free trade markets and global markets; highways, railways and airways; farmers markets and cooperatives; parastatels and subtreasuries; African market queens and Amer-Indian pow-wows

health, cultural choices, family and community

celebrations

Infrastructure of RacismAverage household spends only $1/day on fresh fruits and vegetables and labor costs comprise only 6% of total (so if farm wages rose 40%, then consumer cost = only $8 more/year; 50% in low-income families worry about how to afford food

HealingLearning about health consequences from obesity and correlation to food insecurity; role of ceremonial feasting in building community; God as food; commonalities and differences among cultural attitudes toward food

geography and economics of

waste, recycling

Infrastructure of RacismHealth consequences from toxic waste from mono-agri-business; landfills mostly burden communities of color; inner urban or marginalized communities tend to have sewage and waste management of poor quality

HealingLearning about sustainable food systems; where clean water comes from; recycling and composting; respect for life and taking only what one needs (e.g., prayer before killing animal for its meat and using nearly all the parts without waste)

Digital storytelling keeps the dialog going

Pay-it-forward peer mentoring

Everybody learns from each other

Celebrating family and community

Student leadership

College readiness

Bringing the Bluegrass TogetherUK and the Institute for Food and Justice • Subject matter experts – trainers for facilitating dialogs about racism– survey construction and analysis – focus group feedback analysis

• Researchers in every field• Educators – Guiding service learning projects for UK students– Mentoring undergraduate/graduate researchers

Bringing the Bluegrass Together

UK and the Institute for Food and Justice • Exploration of additional support in

partnership with the Offices of Institutional Diversity and Community Partnerships

• Rent-free use of furnished office space and a meeting room in the former Northside library

• Rent-free use of 10 acres of land near the pond