Food justice is a movement that draws on environmental justice, racial equality, and various social movements to address hunger in an equitable and comprehensive way. As a social justice organization that works to address hunger on a daily basis, food justice is an integral part of our mission.
To understand food justice, one must first understand what injustices and inequalities exist within food systems. Everywhere from farms to grocery stores to a family’s dinner table experiences levels of injustices. In 2024, we outlined how the commodification of food has contributed to the inequalities we see today. Food, though an essential and non-negotiable resource for any person’s survival, has become a commodity–something to be bought and sold for profit, which allows for the exploitation of workers and consumers alike. Farm workers, especially immigrants, are extremely vulnerable to exploitation. Few laws protect them, leading to injury, abuse, and even death. Supermarket employees often work for low wages and lackluster benefits, leading to food insecurity despite working for companies profiting off of the commodification of food. A 2020 report found that major companies such as Walmart, McDonald’s, and Kroger are among the top employers of SNAP beneficiaries.
Beyond this, the bulk of how people typically know food justice has to do with consumer access to healthy foods. Low-income neighborhoods often lack quality grocery stores, a stark contrast to high-income neighborhoods, which often have a variety of options for purchasing a wide range of healthy foods, including farmer’s markets. Areas without ample access to quality food are called food deserts. The system of unequal distribution of resources is known as food apartheid.
Addressing these injustices is at the heart of our Feed the Streets program, and our mission as a whole. We repurpose thousands of pounds of food every year to help create nourishing meals for those we serve. We think critically about nutrition, dietary restrictions, and cultural competency when preparing our meals. We work with organizations such as Kindness Farm, a local nonprofit that provides us with fresh produce from their urban farm for our meals. We take the needs of our kitchen staff seriously, providing them with good wages, benefits, and the opportunity to learn, build skills, and help others. Though we will not be able to end food injustice and apartheid alone, we know that as an organization that addresses hunger, food justice is something that we must consider, and that there’s much more work to be done.