Faith, Food and Farms Conference Celebrates Faith Community Pandemic Work; Inspires Leaders to Expand Food Justice Work
The Faith, Food and Farms Conference brought together food justice and sustainability leaders representing 47 diverse religious communities. Most of the just over 100 participants came from the North Bay and East Bay, however attendees came from other areas of California as well as 8 other states. For the first time the conference included tours of farms and gardens at 7 different faith-community sites. Diverse speakers included 8 farmers growing food on lands owned by religious institutions. The in-person event overlapped with the National Faithlands Gathering.* Ammar Ahmed of Islamic Circle of North America in Washington, D.C. spoke about the response of Muslim communities in the U.S. to hunger during the COVID Pandemic. He called on attendees to help with the national effort by Muslim and Jewish groups to urge USDA to make kosher and halal meat available to observant Jews and Muslims through an emergency food program. Advocates are concerned about protein options available to observant individuals who utilize TEFAP, The Emergency Food Assistance Program. (A letter signed by some 47 members of Congress went to USDA last week, we will keep the Interfaith Food network apprised of how to help with this work.)
Sha’von Terrell, Deputy Director of the National Black Church Food Security Network closed the conference with a Call to Action. “Churches and church associations through their assets and financial commitments may aid in the development of farmers’ markets, supply chains, and other arrangements which can help to create equitable food systems and advance food sovereignty,” said Terrell. Specifically she called on faith-groups to work at every level including:
Nationally: Support the Justice For Black Farmers Act
Regionally: Support the regional food infrastructure by purchasing produce from Black farmers
Locally: Incorporate a racial and economic justice lens to ministry planning by partnering with the Black Church Food Security Network.
The in-person conference was organized in conjunction with the National Faithlands Gathering which overlapped with the first-day programming August 25th and continued for two more days. More than 30 people from 9 states focused on how to make lands owned by religious institutions available to more farmers and ranchers. Interfaith Food has been inventorying lands in Northern California owned by faith-based groups, and identified well over 100 parcels that are 5 acres or larger that may be suitable for leases to BIPOC farmers and others. The group heard from farmers that are successfully operating farms on lands owned by churches, and also from those who have faced challenges to identify ‘best practices’. Tours highlighted immigrant farmer Napoleon Camacho who farms at Seventh Day Adventist Academy, and CrossWinds Church in Livermore with a large community garden and tiny home village on church grounds.
Partners helping to promote and/or organize the conference include: University of California Cooperative Extension, Agrarian Trust, Marin Interfaith Council, Land for Good, Green the Church, Center for Earth Ethics, Plainsong Farm, The Conservation Fund, the Center for Food, Faith and Justice, Presbyterian Hunger Program, and the Islamic Center of North America. Special thanks to USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA AFRI/NIFA, Americorps, San Francisco Foundation, Marin Community Foundation, Sonoma Community Foundation, the Heck Foundation, and other conference sponsors for their financial support.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our 8th Annual Faith, Food and Farms Conference held on August 25, 2021!
The conference is made possible with major support from USDA’s AFRI program and a Specialty Crop Block Grant. A full list of sponsors and donors can be found below:
Missed the conference? Check out some of the materials below!
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