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