Category: Publications

STORIES & STRATEGIES FOR ARTS-INFUSED FOOD SYSTEMS CHANGE: DAISA CO-HOSTS NATIONAL WEBINAR

10/23/2020

Co-hosted by Maria Elena Rodriguez (DAISA Enterprises) and Annalina Kazickas (Wallace Center’s Food Systems Leadership Network) this August 2020 webinar explored the possibilities that exist at the intersection of arts, culture, and food systems.

Over 150 webinar participants heard from Ka Oskar Ly from ArtCrop and Brandi Turner from SippCulture and discussed strategies for developing arts-infused food systems within their community. Our ongoing reality of the COVID-19 crisis and struggles for racial justice illuminate how artistic and cultural practices are more critical than ever in envisioning and realizing resilient food systems.

The webinar was opened with a powerful spoken word performance of “Black Gold” by Naima Penniman of Soul Fire Farm and Climbing PoeTree. Ka Oskar Ly shared about how ArtCrop has used community murals and a communications campaign to tell the story of urban Hmong farming communities, a people who are historically nomadic and do not traditionally own land.

"Art and food are accessible ways to experience culture without judgment."
Ka Oskar Ly, ArtCrop

Brandi Turner discussed how the pandemic has illuminated long-standing social issues but also opened up new opportunities for change. Food and art are both tools many are turning to now as they look to and envision the future.

“Normal was not a sustainable practice.”
Brandi Turner, SippCulture

DAISA ENTERPRISES & FIELD-BUILDING
DAISA has been very moved by years of work supporting and witnessing the power of arts-infused food systems change, including our five-year trajectory as the National Program Office for the Kresge Foundation’s FreshLo Initiative. DAISA serves as conveners and weavers of this effort, uplifting what's happening on the ground, gathering stakeholders across sectors, fostering innovative partnerships, and connecting artists and community leaders with resources.

In 2018 ArtPlace America engaged DAISA to conduct field scan research on the community development sector of food & agriculture which specifically integrated or intertwined with arts & culture. The national research and Cultivating Creativity report reveals what was already happening in the field, what types of projects were being funded, and how infusing artistic and cultural practice shifts the experience, process, and food systems change outcomes.

DAISA is currently exploring the possibilities that exist to continue exploring and supporting arts-infused food systems transformation. We will be hosting an Affinity Group discussion at the upcoming ArtPlace Virtual Summit (see Take Action section below for how to join!) to discuss what resonates around creating a practitioner-led Community of Practice on work at this intersection. Also, acting on a recommendation from the Cultivating Creativity report, we are engaged in leading an upcoming federal briefing on rural placemaking and the intersection of arts, agriculture and economic development.

TAKE ACTION

Watch the webinar recording and the original spoken word performance. Take a look at the webinar and Q & A notes.
Join DAISA’s Supporting Placekeeping through Arts-Infused Food Systems Transformation Affinity Group discussions Oct 28 and 29 at the 2020 ArtPlace Virtual Summit. Registration is free and open to the public!
Contact DAISA if you’d like to get involved in future conversations as this work develops.
Read the ArtPlace + DAISA Enterprises field scan report Cultivating Creativity: Exploring Arts & Culture in Community Food Systems Transformation

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CULTIVATING COMMUNITY: A FIELD SCAN EXPLORING ARTS & CULTURE IN FOOD SYSTEMS

1/21/2020

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Clemmons Family Farm - Charlotte, Vermont

As part of their ongoing research to better understand how arts and culture play an intentional role in place-based community development, in 2018 ArtPlace America commissioned a field scan about the food and agriculture sector. DAISA Enterprises was selected as a research, facilitation, and thought partner to lead this work. DAISA’s deep food systems knowledge and consulting experience, including role as National Program Office for the Kresge Foundations’ Fresh, Local and Equitable initiative, made us a natural fit.

The research report - Cultivating Creativity: Exploring Arts & Culture in Community Food Systems Transformation - informs current knowledge and practice around how arts and cultural approaches can be better leveraged to create equitable and place-based food systems change across the country - spanning rural, tribal, and urban settings. Launched at the 2019 Artplace Summit, the field scan is contributing to building the fields of arts and culture and community development, informed by creative placemaking and grounded in the experiences of artists and community change-makers.

THE RESEARCH PROCESS
In what types of community-based effort is artistic and cultural expression contributing to food and agricultural outcomes? Research included examining grant databases of ten relevant federal agencies and foundations and identifying 180 projects integrating arts and culture with food and agriculture. Projects included community gardens & farms, community gathering spaces, community & incubator kitchens, culinary arts projects, food & agricultural tourism and celebration efforts, and food markets. Interviews with thirty-one food systems practitioners, artists, and field thought leaders from communities across the country illuminated powerful wisdom and lived experience:

“Art and culture is really compatible with the food and agriculture sector, because they are both really creationary. [...] Because you can approach agriculture from a systematic mentality that is extractive or you can approach agriculture from a perspective or mentality that is creationary and diverse. So bringing arts and culture to agriculture is a way to restore a more regenerative agriculture system.”
Lehua Simon, Artist, Mālamalama Maui Project

Desert Botanical Garden Spaces of Opportunity - Phoenix, Arizona

THE WORKING GROUP: TESTING OUR FINDINGS
In early March 2019, DAISA and ArtPlace - along with co-conveners Rural Coalition and Farm Credit Council - held a working group meeting to discuss initial research findings and to craft potential steps forward. A total of forty-one participants convened in Albany, Georgia, hailing from twenty-two different states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. Among the group were farmers, community practitioners, artists, community organizers, funders & financers, chefs, government and policy representatives, media, and academic leaders. Participants came from both rural and urban geographies, as well as numerous racial and ethnic communities from across the country.

The Arts, Culture & Food/Agriculture Working Group Meeting was held at Resora on Cypress Pond, a 1638-acre former plantation in southwest Georgia currently owned by black-led grassroots organization New Communities and operated as a retreat and conference center and a working farm. The space was chosen to host the Working Group meeting in order to honor the history of black farmer-led civil rights activism and to support New Communities’ mission of providing a restorative space for environmental and economic justice and racial healing.

Working Group Participants at Resora - Albany, Georgia, March 2019

Meeting participants heard inspiring work from three community practitioners - representatives from La Mujer Obrera, Wormfarm Institute, and Inner-City Muslim Action Network - presenting “Stories of Change” that brought to life the vibrancy of arts and culture-infused food and agricultural efforts. Participants delved deeply into the draft key findings to identify gaps and opportunities for refinement. Grounded in the power and beauty of the Resora farm, the group identified critical needs that exist to continue uplifting equity, social justice, and community healing through arts & culture-infused food systems transformation.

WHAT WE FOUND
The report reveals that arts-integrated food systems work provides a uniquely accessible and effective way to:

Bridge and heal divides
Drive equitable food oriented development and rural vitality
Transform community spaces and celebrate identity
Promote secure land tenure
Ignite creative, community-led processes
Preserve and reclaim food & farming traditions

What specifically about the intersection of arts and culture with food and agriculture allows for these powerful change-making processes to occur? We found that integrating arts and culture with food and agriculture enables a creative and inclusive visioning and planning process, and ensures community members see their identities, histories, and interests reflected in the work. Eating and growing practices often connect to the very center of who we are as individuals and communities. Food and agriculture both articulate with our connections to history, place, environment, sustenance, joy, and communion. Integrating eating and growing practices with creative reflection and action enables people to see themselves reflected in the work, and drives home the potential for personal and community change.

Utilizing creative placemaking strategies encourages community members to join their neighbors in identifying and creating relevant and innovative responses to local challenges. Creative placemaking that connects intentionally to food and agricultural practice provides a tangible and deeply interconnected way to drive food systems change and shape the future of a community. Community development efforts within the subsector of food and agriculture that lift up the importance of arts and culture provide a unique opportunity to improve quality of life in connected, meaningful, and equitable ways for community residents.

Thunder Valley CDC - Porcupine, South Dakota

WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW?
DAISA and ArtPlace have recently committed to further collaboration on disseminating these findings and recommendations to spark new and deeper partnerships between stakeholders in food systems, arts and culture, community development, government, and philanthropy. Through conference presentations, public webinars, regional briefing calls, and other targeted outreach, DAISA will advocate for the role of artist-practitioners and artist-facilitators and demonstrate the power and efficacy of arts and cultural practices in helping create equitable and place-based food systems change across the country. DAISA will also coordinate and support artists direct participation in typically food-focused conferences and is working with ArtPlace to design a Federal briefing for US Federal agencies which examines this intersection within rural communities.

TAKE ACTION
Read the field scan to learn more about the key findings, recommendations, and initial thoughts on evaluating the success of this work.

Share the field scan and brainstorm how to better support artistic leadership and creative practice in your network and community!

Stay tuned to DAISA’s blog and Instagram for future announcements of webinars, presentations, and other opportunities to engage with the research.

Visit the ArtPlace Agriculture & Food page to read case studies and also check out their other community development sector field scans.

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Equitable Food Oriented Development: A Justice-Forward Framework For Community Change

12/18/2019

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Local food ventures and healthy food access projects have gained considerable traction in underserved neighborhoods in recent years. However, many of these initiatives often exclude local residents in their planning, execution, and ownership; structures that can have significant negative health and economic impacts in these communities, and even exacerbate injustices. In response, a new framework of resident-led initiatives promoting equity in community-level food systems projects is emerging.

Equitable Food Oriented Development (EFOD), is an innovative approach that aligns food and economic development models, with an explicit aim of building community power. EFOD specifically helps historically marginalized communities maintain leadership, pride, and voice in their resident-centered food and agriculture initiatives; and ensures vulnerable communities can create food systems that reflect culture, promote health, and build community wealth.

EFOD organizations around the country have long sought to explain the transformative nature of their work to audiences that still see health equity, economic opportunity, and community leadership as distinct fields of practice. Beginning in 2015, organizations began meeting to discuss a research and evaluation agenda that would uplift the creation of community-led, food-based economies. Supported by visionary philanthropic leaders who saw the connection between community ownership and the success of place-based public health and economic initiatives, a formal group began to emerge - The EFOD Collaborative and Steering Committee.

Sankofa CDC - New Orleans, Louisiana, EFOD Steering Committee Member

The origins of the term “Equitable Food Oriented Development,” and the desire to articulate the vision of organizations using such a framework, reflects the importance of co-creation between practitioners and key allies in the health and development fields. After several months of EFOD Steering Committee meetings, research and drafting by DAISA, and building upon a white paper written by Dana Harvey, the following working definition of the EFOD practice was co-developed:

Equitable Food Oriented Development is a development strategy that uses food and agriculture to create economic opportunities, healthy communities, and explicitly seeks to build community assets, pride, and power by and with historically-marginalized communities.

In October 2019, the EFOD Collaborative along with DAISA, and with support from The Kresge Foundation, released Equitable Food Oriented Development: Building Community Power - a white paper based on fresh, new research that lays out the EFOD framework - its origins, defining criteria, and impacts. The paper also provides well-researched recommendations for sustainable field-building developed from years of community-based practitioner expertise.

Impacts and outcomes attributed to EFOD are distinct from those of traditional community development or food oriented development (FOD). While conventional food systems work may unintentionally cause harm to communities through gentrification, displacement, or extraction of local resources, EFOD instead fosters strong social capital networks, equitable asset development, increased civic engagement, and decreased displacement.

EFOD IN ACTION: THE POWER OF FOOD-BASED COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Ashland Market & Cafe, a project of Mandela Partners (Oakland, CA)

“It was a very focused effort to work with community to determine food access gaps and economic development opportunities… through that process we were not only able to launch a community-directed project, but we also deepened our own connection with the neighborhood we serve.”
- Mariela Cedeño, Interim Executive Director, Mandela Partners

Long-time community organization Mandela Partners worked alongside local residents and stakeholders to develop the Ashland Market and Cafe, a 2,100-square-foot food hall, incubator, and community space on the ground floor of an affordable housing complex. The project was catalyzed in partnership with a resident-led advisory committee that eventually selected four local food entrepreneurs as the facility’s inaugural tenants. Ashland Market & Cafe vendors live in the surrounding neighborhoods and sell foods that reflect their heritage and family histories. To support and encourage community-based entrepreneurship, kiosks rental rates are kept well below market and tenants are offered business development workshops, micro-loans, and legal assistance. Ashland Market & Cafe was funded using an innovative, but cumbersome, mix of financial instruments including revolving loans, $360,000 in federal Healthy Food Financing Initiative funds, and $1.3M in public and private investments.

Ashland Market & Cafe, Mandela Partners - Oakland, California, EFOD Steering Committee Member

TAKE ACTION
Read the white paper and share it with your networks.
Visit EFOD.org to learn more about Equitable Food Oriented Development and the EFOD Collaborative.
Join the EFOD mailing list to stay up-to-date on happenings in the field.

The white paper was jointly produced by the EFOD Collaborative and DAISA Enterprises, with support from The Kresge Foundation. EFOD Collaborative Steering Committee members include Community Services Unlimited Inc., Nuestras Raíces, La Mujer Obrera, Mandela Partners, Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, Inclusive Action for the City, Planting Justice, Sankofa Community Development Corporation, La Semilla Food Center, and allies from Capital Impact Partners, Self-Help Federal Credit Union, and The Wallace Center at Winrock International.

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STORIES & STRATEGIES FOR ARTS-INFUSED FOOD SYSTEMS CHANGE: DAISA CO-HOSTS NATIONAL WEBINAR

CULTIVATING COMMUNITY: A FIELD SCAN EXPLORING ARTS & CULTURE IN FOOD SYSTEMS

Equitable Food Oriented Development: A Justice-Forward Framework For Community Change

DAISA Enterprises BLOG

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