GLIDE’s President & CEO, Dr. Gina Fromer, gave the closing keynote at the Second Annual Food Action Summit on April 28th. The Food Action Summit was organized by the Food and Agriculture Action Coalition Toward Sovereignty (FAACTS), a group of community organizations that fight for food security, quality, and justice. A spacious ballroom packed with advocates fighting for consistent and equitable access to food and nutrition services (in San Francisco and beyond!) applauded her remarks.
Food justice begins with listening to those who have experienced hunger
Dr. Gina came from a place not only of expertise but lived experience. “I was one of the founding members of the Food Security Taskforce for San Francisco – where we fought for school lunches to be healthier and salad bars to be in every school. I ran a food pantry in Bayview Hunters Point – where I was born and raised – for 16 years until COVID shut us down. As President & CEO for GLIDE, we serve more than 600,000 meals a year – 364 days a year. As a child I stood in food lines with my mother. And as a mother myself, I needed to go to GLIDE for food to feed my family.” Her experience battling hunger was not only professional, but personal.
People of color will be more likely to lose their food security
Her speech dwelt particularly on the threat to communities of color when food security is being slashed. “The data doesn’t lie,” she said. “Look at the food lines across the city and you will know who is impacted the most. We can’t have that. We need leadership – and we need it now!”
At the end of two days of intense meetings and workshops, you could see the tired audience filling with energy as Dr. Gina inspired them. “We are on this journey with you – toward food justice and security for ALL!” she told them.
Institutional food needs to uphold human dignity
Our President & CEO also talked about defending food access in our public institutions: hospital, prisons, and schools. One topic near & dear to her heart was the provision of quality meals for school children. Children need meals they won’t throw away, because they taste like “cardboard.” We don’t want our kids eating junk food from vending machines because it’s the best they can find. Food justice means putting the well-being, choice and dignity of our communities first.
Upcoming opportunities in food justice & sovereignty at GLIDE
GLIDE’s next Social Justice Academy will focus on food justice and health, particularly for members of the Black community. We encourage any applicants who have been harmed by food injustice to apply to this short-term paid opportunity to learn advocacy skills and advocate for their communities; the opportunity will be posted here when applications open.
Stay loving and hopeful
Hope and love are part of GLIDE’s core values. It’s important to hold fast to hope during a time when, across our country, food banks are losing one billion dollars of food. Programs that go all the way back to the New Deal are being rolled back. We won’t sugarcoat that harsh reality, but we do believe that community advocates and organizations like GLIDE can ensure a love agenda prevails over a hate agenda– and that people get fed.