African American Roundtable’s Feed the Change MKE organizers are ready for a summer of action aimed at transforming Milwaukee’s local food system.
The campaign, which officially launched May 30, is rooted in the priorities of residents on Milwaukee’s far Northwest Side but is designed as an effort that invites participation from individuals and organizations from neighborhoods across Milwaukee.
“We’re moving out of that phase of building momentum and educating people about what we’re up to and into the action phase,” said Ryeshia Farmer, community program manager for the African American Roundtable, who is helping lead the campaign.
The Roundtable spent June canvassing neighborhoods in Milwaukee’s 5th and 9th aldermanic districts, both located on the city’s Northwest Side, informing residents about the campaign and inviting them to participate in upcoming events. Organizers also hosted outreach activities at Juneteenth celebrations and recruited community members for educational sessions focused on grassroots organizing and campaign-building.
An upcoming virtual workshop will help residents understand how community campaigns differ from programs or projects and how collective action can create political power, Farmer said.
“Feed the Change MKE recognizes that food justice is public safety work. When neighborhoods are empowered, resourced, connected and invested in, people feel safer and communities thrive,” said Shirley Tucker, Northwest Side leader and Roundtable member. “For too long, major decisions impacting Milwaukee’s Northwest Side have been made without meaningful input from the people who live here.”
Engaging residents across the city
As the campaign enters its next phase, the African American Roundtable is encouraging residents and partner organizations throughout Milwaukee to host community-based food projects in July.
Farmer said the activities can range from movie nights and house gatherings to gardening workshops, garden tours and farmers market visits.
“We’re inviting partners and everyday people to do community-based projects with their families, their friends, people on their block, their networks,” she said. “Just getting ready for the busy summer.”
Northwest Side-led, citywide in scope
While the campaign originated from conversations with Northwest Side residents, Farmer said that food insecurity affects communities across Milwaukee and requires citywide participation to address.
“One of the things we realized and want to be clear about with this campaign is because food is such a universally impactful issue, engaging everybody in Milwaukee is going to be important,” she said.
Sandra Jones, executive director of the Victory Garden Initiative, attended a press conference in support of the work in late May.
“Food insecurity is a structural problem and it’s a problem by design in many instances,” she said. “If a community, if a society cannot feed its people, it is a failed society.”
To expand access, many campaign activities are being offered virtually so residents across the city can participate.
Farmer said five women from the Northwest Side have helped shape the campaign’s direction and strategy.
“The major distinction is that this is Northwest Side-led, meaning the visions came from people in Aldermanic Districts 5 and 9,” Farmer said. “However, there’s a role for anyone at any section of the city to get involved.”
To help folks get involved the group has created a community guide.
A localized food system
The campaign seeks to build support for a proposed $1 million investment in Milwaukee’s Healthy Food Establishment Fund. The African American Roundtable hopes to secure commitments from elected officials to support legislation funding neighborhood-based food solutions.
Farmer said residents have identified farmers markets, locally owned grocery stores, community gardens, mobile markets, food delivery services and educational programs that help residents grow, prepare and sustain access to healthy food.
“At the end of the day, that’s the localized system that we’re looking for,” Farmer said. “Something that’s rooted in residents’ vision.”
She said the campaign is focused on creating alternatives to a food system that many residents feel has failed their communities.
Although the campaign’s focus on food comes amid a wave of grocery store closures in Milwaukee, organizers say the effort was already underway before those occurred.
“This has been almost two years in the making,” Farmer said.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
