Common Pantry
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Discussion for Volunteers
To get the most out of this discussion, please click “Present” in upper right-hand corner.
Thank you!
Here at Common Pantry we are dedicated to providing resources and access to food that help our neighbors as well as creating a community of respect, compassion, and allyship.
We want every member of our community to feel welcome regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, ability, or religion.
We ask that you complete this guided discussion to further our commitment to becoming an even more inclusive and supportive community.
Thank you.
Our mission: To meet the emergency needs of our local community by providing healthy food, kinship and support to help overcome poverty-related challenges.
Our vision: Strengthen our capacity to provide food and services for the overall well-being of our clients. We take a strategic, forward-thinking approach to reduce hunger and address the root causes of poverty, infusing compassion into everything we do.
Our mission & vision
Our Clients
Our volunteers are the bridge between our clients and our goals!
Everyone is different in their own way, often as a result of each person’s individual identity and culture. We’re all made up of different backgrounds and experiences.
However, we don’t see everything. We only see a small portion of a person’s culture through their language, food, clothing, rituals, and ceremonies.
The overwhelming majority (90%) of the culture remains invisible to people outside the culture. Much like an iceberg (it’ll make more sense).
While the parts we see are expressions of what is invisible, it shows how difficult it can be to understand people from different cultural backgrounds and identities, especially when you do not know the person.
Education
Has anyone ever had misconceptions about your culture or identity?
How did it feel?
Diversity
When everyone’s different identities and cultural backgrounds, and anything else that makes someone different, come together, it’s called diversity.
Diversity is about bringing people of different races, ethnicities, national origins, ages, gender identities, sexual orientations, abilities, education and knowledge levels, and religions together so that we can all learn and create a better understanding of each other.
It’s about seeing the differences as everyone’s strengths and coming together to be better.
Diversity:
the representation of people from different backgrounds, cultures, and identities.
What are some of your identities that make you different?
How have people who are different from you, helped you in the past?
Inclusion
Alongside diversity, people talk about inclusion but it’s not always clear what people mean. So what is inclusion?
Inclusion is more about the experience that people from different backgrounds have. Can they be themselves? Do they have to hide a part of their identity or culture to fit in? Do they have to act differently to be accepted?
Diversity is about bringing people from different backgrounds together while inclusivity is about embracing the differences.
Inclusion:
diverse people feeling seen, heard, and like they can actively participate without hiding a part of themselves.
Can you think of a time where you couldn’t be who you really are or had to act differently to fit in somewhere or with someone?
What are your initial thoughts and reactions to the video you just watched?
Did anything feel familiar?
Have you seen any of these “looks” before?
Implicit bias/blindspots
These “looks”, behaviors, thoughts, biases are things we all have towards different groups of people. They are often an honest mistake but are snap judgements that we make based on past experiences and stereotypes and happen without us knowing.
However, this isn’t an excuse.
We may all have these unconscious biases and blindspots, but once we acknowledge they exist, we must then challenge them and raise our own awareness so we can reduce their influence in our everyday interactions.
We all have blindspots, but once we accept that we do we can choose to do something about them.
Microaggressions
While we all have unconscious biases and blindspots, these tend to just stay as judgments and are not often expressed directly to the person.
When our judgments become comments and are directed at a person, it’s called a microaggression.
Microaggressions are incidents which someone can accidentally or purposely make an offensive comment or ask an insensitive question.
Microaggression:
everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults whether intentional or not, that sends a negative message to an individual of a marginalized group.
Examples of microaggressions:
These may seem like small mistakes and you didn’t want to hurt or offend anyone, but they have a large impact on who is on the receiving end.
Once you realize or have been confronted with making one of these mistakes, you have to realize the impact that you made rather than the intent that you had.
No matter what your intention was, the damage has already been done.
You want to listen to the person’s feelings, what they are saying, and learn from the experience to improve all your interactions with others, than try to justify what your intention was. Invalidating someone’s experiences by defending yourself and intent, can ultimately be worse than the microaggression itself.
Has anyone ever made an offensive comment towards you?
Did you react?
Have you ever accidentally made an offensive comment towards someone?
How did they react? How did you react?
Have you ever seen or heard someone make an offensive comment toward someone else?
Did you say anything in the situation?
Equality vs Equity
With diversity and inclusion, especially when there is a lack of either, we often hear the words equality and equity being thrown around, but aren’t they the same thing? Don’t we all want to be treated equally?
Yes…… and No…….
We all want to be treated equally but that’s not always possible when inequities exist and people are treated unfairly in the world.
The main difference between equality and equity is whether people are being treated based on their level of need.
Everyone shouldn’t be treated the same, but according to where they are at and their own need, especially when we each face our own challenges and struggles.
If everyone was treated equally, there would still be shortcomings and struggles because everyone started off at a different point. If everyone was treated equitably then everyone would be provided with the resources and opportunities to reach the same outcome.
Equity is recognizing each person’s differences and providing the resources and opportunities to reach the same outcome.
Equality is when every individual or group of people are given the same resources or opportunities.
Respect and Boundaries
Bottomline, it comes down to respect and boundaries.
Respecting and embracing people for their differences and maintaining boundaries of all kinds (emotional, mental, physical).
Most of what has been discussed is centered on respect and boundaries people set around their identity but we also need to consider people’s physical boundaries.
Everyone deserves their personal space and to know that they will not be touched in a way they don’t welcome or have not consented to, to not be talked about in a sexual, lewd, or uncomfortable way, to not have sexual or inappropriate jokes or comments to be made.
Ways to respect others’ boundaries
Here are some ways that we can all respect each other and the boundaries we set.
Do this:
Instead of this:
So what’s the point of all of this stuff anyways?
Once we all learn to be more aware about diversity, inclusivity, and equity and all the ways that we may harm others, we all become better.
We develop more empathy and understanding and can improve our interactions with others, allowing us to expand our individual points of view and improve our teamwork.
We can pass on what we know when we see something happen.
It has also been proven that diverse groups and teams are more efficient and create more innovative solutions.
Ultimately, we can feed people and serve our community better at the pantry!
As we move forward at the Pantry with conversations, discussions, a new building, and navigating the rest of the pandemic, we ask that you continue to respect everyone’s identity, privacy, and boundaries.
Please be aware of the emotional, mental, and physical boundaries that we all have, especially as we all enter a post-pandemic life.
At Common Pantry we expect that everyone use what was discussed in every interaction with any of our various community members (clients, volunteers, staff) so that not only can we improve our services and resources and become more effective but more importantly so everyone feels safe, respected, and comfortable at the Pantry to be their true authentic selves.
Please click on the following link to confirm the completion of this guided discussion: https://forms.gle/tV1Pf5HtnWtKa72f6
Thank you!