Sign on as an individual or as a group to the People's Summit's declaration for food justice if you agree! You don't have to live in Louisville to sign on; you can sign on in solidarity from wherever you reside!
Drafted by the Partnership for a Greater Louisville Food Council and Food Vision 2030, affirmed by Weaving the Food Web People's Summit participants, handed to Metro Council President Marcus Winkler and Deputy Mayor Nicole George on September 9, 2023, and launched on October 2, 2023.________________________________
We – People’s Summit participants, signers of the declaration, and Food in Neighborhoods – are defenders of human dignity and advocates for the basic human right to food. United in diversity, we are dedicated to the daily work of ending food apartheid in Louisville. Together, we commit to sowing the seeds of joy, solidarity, and hope!
We are alarmed at the vast inequalities that persist between the west and east ends of our city. The fact that one in seven people in Kentuckiana are food insecure* and one out of every five children has faced food insecurity during the last year** are indicators of this dire situation.
We are dedicated to challenging and building alternatives to harmful systems that divide those with access to an abundance of nutritious food and those who are denied such access. We believe that food justice is racial justice and, while policy changes are urgently needed, we recognize the centrality of mutual aid for our survival and collective well-being.
At the People’s Summit, we gathered to share meaningful experiences and build lasting relationships of cooperation and care that can sustain the local food movement. We celebrated existing projects, programs, and partnerships aimed at transforming food and agricultural systems. Moving forward, we plan to define a common vision for food justice and health equity, and we issue the following call to action to advance our shared commitment.
Call on People to Participate in Shaping the Food Vision 2030 & Greater Louisville Food CouncilSpearheaded by the Partnership for a Greater Louisville Food Council and Food Vision 2030, we commit to working together to establish this multi-year strategic plan and a Food Council that will work to enshrine the right to food for all Louisvillians, with special attention to those with limited access to affordable, healthy food. Critical to this is support for producers, workers, and food businesses–the backbone of our food system. The Food Vision and Food Council will guide the implementation of the community’s vision for a just and equitable food system.
Call on Elected Officials for their SupportWe call on the sustained support of residents, groups, businesses, institutions, the Mayor’s Office, and the Louisville Metro Council to realize this vision together. We call on our elected leaders to recognize and uphold the work done by the community, to support the Greater Louisville Food Council, and to bolster its impact by advocating for and supporting its initiatives. We know that our initiatives will be more impactful when the Louisville Metro Government recognizes that food is a basic human right and works with us to advance policies and programs to guarantee this right. We call on the Metro Council and Mayor’s Office to turn words of concern about food insecurity into actions that provide concrete support, funding, and the necessary policy environment.
Working together, we – as residents, food producers, community groups, businesses, institutions, and government – can solve Louisville’s food apartheid by addressing the underlying systems, like systemic racism, which have led to stark inequities in food access, health, education, housing, and wealth that we experience in Louisville today.
Sources: * Dare to Care and ** greaterlouisvilleproject.org/food-security 