The 2013 Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Award winners spent three days in New York City with us this week– always a highlight of our year! They were honored at the WhyHunger-Chapin Awards Dinner on Monday along with Yoko Ono Lennon and Patrick Sullivan of RightsFlow by Google, and had two days in the field in Brooklyn networking and on site visits. (Thanks to Phoenix Community Garden, Neighbors Together, and East New York Farms! for hospitality.)
Tuesday’s Networking Day was especially energizing; the five groups, along with WhyHunger staff and Okello Sam of Imagine There’s No Hunger partner Hope North in Uganda, spent the day in a community garden, sharing stories, discussing successes and challenges, and discovering the common threads in their work.
Check out the album below for shots from the day! (Photos by David Hanson.)
Alejandro Tecum, Adelante Mujeres (OR)
And here’s one of the highlights from Monday’s Awards Dinner: Okello Sam of Hope North presents Yoko Ono Lennon with a Ugandan drum, and recognition of her incredible support of the Imagine There’s No Hunger program. For more from the Awards Dinner, click here.
Yoko Ono Lennon and Okello Sam (photo by Mark Von Holden)
Across the country, grantees of the USDA Community Food Project Competitive Grant Program (CFP) are doing some of the most innovative and collaborative projects to change local and regional food systems. WhyHunger’s Food Security Learning Center — also funded by a CFP grant — has recently begun to profile these organizations through dynamic stories and pictures, to give a real flavor of what the projects look like and how they’re accomplishing their goals. We’ll be sharing these profiles on the blog in the coming months — and you can check out more anytime on the Community Food Projects database.
We’ll start with Adelante Mujeres, just announced as a 2013 Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Award winner! Adelante Mujeres received a CFP grant in 2010 for an initiative called “Increasing Market Access.” The project is based on assessing the needs of low-income Latino farmers in Washington County, OR, and the intersection of larger local and regional food security issues. As new markets for locally-produced food continue to grow, evident in the expansion of online marketplaces, farm to school programs, and the growing popularity of farmers markets and U- pick farms, there are a wide array of opportunities for small-scale producers to contribute to the local food system. But there are still barriers that make it tough for low-income Latino farmers to compete. Through experiences managing the Forest Grove Farmers Market and organic farming program, Adelante Mujeres is finding that while low-income Latino farmers have the skills and determination to launch agricultural businesses, they face social, cultural and technological barriers that inhibit access to these growing local food markets.
Read the rest of the profile on the Food Security Learning Center…
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Since 2004, WhyHunger has featured USDA Community Food Project (CFP) grantees on a database as part of our Food Security Learning Center. The Community Food Projects Competitive Grant Program was started in 1996 to fight hunger and promote self-sufficiency in low-income communities. Community Food Projects are designed to increase food security by bringing together stakeholders from across the food system to assess strengths, establish links and relationships, and create solutions that work for the whole community.
We are thrilled to announce the winners of the 2013 Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Awards! Since 1985, the Awards have recognized and championed innovative community-based organizations working to fight hunger and poverty around the country. This year’s strong pool of applicants made it a tough decision—and is an inspiring sign of all the action and change that’s happening in communities across the US.
The winners of the 2013 Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Awards are:
- Adelante Mujeres, Forest Grove, OR
http://www.adelantemujeres.org/
- La Mujer Obrera, El Paso, TX
http://www.mujerobrera.org/
- Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, Chicago, IL
http://lvejo.org/
- Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, Bloomington, IN
http://mhcfoodpantry.org/
- SEEDS, Durham, NC
http://www.seedsnc.org/
Learn more about these great organizations behind the cut!
Happy Thanksgiving! Best wishes to you and your families on this day of sharing food and gratitude. We’re grateful for the work of our amazing partner organizations, helping grow food and community around the country and the world – and we’re grateful to you for your support! In honor of the holiday, we bring you shots of our partners breaking bread together.
MPP (Mouvman Peyizan Papay), founded in 1973 in Haiti, boasts a membership of 60,000, and is arguably the country's most successful grassroots organization in addressing the problems of food production, land protection and viable peasant cooperatives. With the support of the “Imagine There’s No Hunger” campaign, MPP is working with two schools to improve the quality and amount of food available in the school meal, by establishing on-site vegetable farms where food is grown with agroecological methods by teachers, parents and children. [Photo: Hazel Thompson
“Food, What?!,” in Santa Cruz, CA, partners with low-income and at-risk youth to grow, cook, eat and distribute healthy, sustainably-raised food and address issues of food justice. Food is the vehicle for FoodWhat?!'s primary goal of growing strong, healthy and engaged teens.
Yorkville Common Pantry, in East Harlem, New York City, is dedicated to reducing hunger while promoting dignity and self-sufficiency, championing the cause of the hungry through food pantry and meal distribution programs, nutrition education and related services. YCP has been a local leader in relief efforts following hurricane Sandy.
In a unique combination of local and international activism, Food for Maine’s Future, in Sedgwick, ME, integrates the work of local Maine fishers and farmers into broader national and international movements, ultimately working to return land and food policy to the hands of grassroots communities.
