The Food Justice Framework
Explore below to learn more about this important resource from GVI, see example pages of the document, and learn about the process of using The Food Justice Framework in your team or organization.
What is food justice?
Food justice is when communities are able to exercise “their right to grow, sell, and eat healthy food. Healthy food is fresh, nutritious, affordable, culturally-appropriate, and grown locally with care for the well-being of the land, workers, and animals. The Food Justice Movement is inspired by grassroots and organizing movements before it, including the Civil Rights Movement and Environmental Justice Movement (JUST FOOD).”
What is the Food Justice Framework?
The Food Justice Framework (FJF) is a free online tool developed by Green Village Initiative (GVI): a nonprofit working to grow food, knowledge, leadership, and community, through urban farming and gardening, to create a more just food system in Bridgeport, CT.
Why did we create the food justice framework?
GVI created the FJF to guide people who are interested in incorporating food justice and racial equity into their organizations’ work, but who don’t know where to start. The FJF will help users define food justice in relation to their unique roles and communities, prepare their team for conversations about big issues, and undergo a self-assessment to identify their strengths and opportunities for growth. Working through the FJF will help users build resilience in their organizations and communities.
This Framework provides a foundation that addresses physical, mental, and spiritual needs of the user, with tools for grounding along the way. Finally, it provides recommendations for how any organization can shift its current practices and provide knowledge to its team members to create a more just, equitable, and liberated food system.
The creation of the FJF was influenced and shaped by GVI’s own work to put food justice at the center of our mission, with the help of anti-racism and equity consultants, coaches, and therapists over several years. This Framework is a way to share the lessons we’ve learned along the way and help other organizations join us in putting food justice into action.
READ AND DOWNLOAD THE FOOD JUSTICE FRAMEWORK HERE!
Read more about how it works before diving in below.
A Glimpse Inside The Food Justice Framework
Guiding questions to help you understand the food system and your role in it
Inspiring quotes and resources from leading individuals and organizations in the food justice and antiracism movements
Worksheets to help you answer difficult questions, identify areas for growth, and plan to enact change
Real world examples from GVI’s journey towards food justice
Comprehensive definitions to grow your understanding of key concepts along the way
How it Works
Before diving into the work, the FJF will guide you in preparing your team or organization to engage in healthy, productive conversations about big challenges and inequity. This framework will lead you through a series of suggestions to help set you up for success and ensure this experience is as meaningful/effective as possible.
This framework will help you ask essential questions and do a self-assessment of your organization and programs to find gaps, problems, and room for growth. This will help you identify where your starting point is and how you can utilize your existing resources and opportunities to advance food justice.
This guide will provide background information on food justice and help you define it in ways that are specific to your organization. This will help you understand how food justice and racial equity are relevant at any organization, anywhere - not just at a food-related nonprofit or farm. We hope that this document will function like a standard operating procedure.
This guide will help you reveal disconnects between your mission and vision and what you’re actually doing. Working to address those disconnects is a big task, using this guide will give you tips for starting a longer journey that may reshape your organization’s approaches, priorities, and impacts.
The amount of time that it will take for you and your team to move through this guide may vary. It has taken GVI years to develop this tool and reflect back on all of our experiences in these pages. Your time navigating this will vary. You are welcome to repeat the process as many times as you feel you need to, and to move through the 9 Steps slowly.
By downloading the FJF, you can add your own edits, fill out worksheets that guide the process, and adjust the tools to the specifics of your organization. Allowing the FJF to stay open online also allows us to edit the tool as we receive feedback from users - because we recognize that it is imperfect and are open to your suggestions.
We recognize that there are complicated, deeply rooted, and systemic barriers to changing the food system, and to changing your organization and even yourself. This is why food justice is so important, but these barriers also sometimes limit the impacts and possibilities of this work. When these barriers come up, name them directly, and give yourself and your organization grace when you run up against limits or challenges.
