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HAH VISTAs Attend National Conference on Hunger

13 Oct 2017, by Admin in Harvest Blog, Harvest VISTA, Washington state, National VISTA

Harvest VISTAs

Harvest VISTAs from Washington and Virginia attended the Closing the Hunger Gap Conference in Tacoma on September 12 & 13. The conference, held every two years, brings together national and local leaders in hunger relief and social justice to share ideas, learn, and develop strategies to reduce hunger and improve racial and economic equity. The conference theme for 2017 was “From Charity to Solidarity.”

Keynote speaker Malik Yakini, founder and executive director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, opened the conference with an inspiring and challenging speech, suggesting that solidarity means that each of us must do our part to liberate ourselves, as we’re all in this movement together. Keynote speaker Beatriz Beckford, campaign director of MomsRising and longtime grassroots organizer, closed the conference with a call to action: service without a movement toward change is not social justice, and a challenge: are we doing enough to abolish hunger?

In addition to attending sessions and hearing keynotes, Harvest VISTAs networked and ideas-shared with hunger relief organizations staff from across the country. They also assisted in facilitating a conference session titled “A Fresh Approach to Farm to Food Pantry,” which convened a panel of innovators from across Washington to share ideas and best practices with conference participants.