Nationally renown activist, LaDonna Redmond, to lead OKT’s April 27 Convening on food justice

LaDonna Redmond is at the forefront of the food justice movement. She currently leads an Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) project that focuses on health, justice and the food system. The project centers on health disparities resulting from the food system, from the farm to consumers—particularly as they affect low‐income populations and communities of color. It also entails creating universal Food Justice Principles. Our Kitchen Table, managers of the Southeast Area Farmers’ Market, attended IATP’s Food + Justice =Democracy conference September 2012 and took part in the co‐creation of these food justice principles.

As a next step, local collective gatherings across the nation are reviewing the draft principles.Redmond will lead part 4 of the Grand Rapids area Convening, hosted by OKT, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday April 27 at Madison Square Church, 1441 Madison SE. 

A speaker, radio host and former Food and Society Policy Fellow, Redmond was one of 25 citizen and business leaders named a Responsibility Pioneer by Time Magazine. She successfully worked to get Chicago Public Schools to evaluate junk food, launched urban agriculture projects, started a community grocery store and worked on federal farm policy to expand access to healthy food in low‐income communities.

“We have a food system that has largely been built on the backs of people who don’t have a lot of rights and access to our public policy infrastructure,” said Redmond. “We need to collectively better understand the inequities in the food system and make sure we include people who have faced these inequities in finding solutions.”

Here is a video of Redmond presenting at TEDxTC