CEFS’ Community-Based Food Systems Outreach Coordinator Shorlette Ammons Releases Critical Analysis of Gender, Race and the Food System, Shining a Light in Dark Places: Raising Up the Work of Southern Women of Color in the Food System

RALEIGH, NC, August 5, 2014: Shorlette Ammons, CEFS’ Community-Based Food Systems Outreach Coordinator, has produced a report on gender, race, and the food system entitled Shining a Light in Dark Places: Raising Up the Work of Southern Women of Color in the Food System.  The work was completed as part of a year-long Food Equity Fellowship at the Center for Social Inclusion (CSI).

The report details policy solutions and strategic opportunities to address failures in the food system by weaving her personal story, U.S. history, and the wisdom and insight from women of color food workers and activists.

Interviewees include:

• Former Congresswoman Eva Clayton, who brings a needed perspective based on her global anti-hunger work and passion for rural communities;
• Tavia Benjamin and Hermelinda Cortes, young community organizers who both offer millennial insight on the intersection of issues that lead to economic and health disparity;
• Daa’iyah Salaam, Deputy Director of the Southwest Georgia Project, and Greta Gladney, Founder, President and Executive Director of the Renaissance Project, who both offer a grassroots perspective that provides a direct link between what is happening on the ground and the policies that are needed to impact change.

CSI simultaneously released a companion report entitled Building the Case for Equity in the Food System.

“These reports show clearly that the food system is set up to take advantage of communities. Learning how the food system works and listening to communities most impacted by the injustices in our food system are the first steps to creating a food system that works for everyone,” says Glenn Harris, President of the Center for Social Inclusion.

Shorlette, a former librarian, has a Master’s Degree in Library Science from North Carolina Central University.  She has worked closely with the Goldsboro, NC community over the past five years through the Wayne Food Initiative and various community-based food systems projects including community gardens and a recently-established urban farm.

Based in New York, CSI is a national public policy strategy organization that works to unite public policy research and grassroots advocacy to transform structural racial inequity into structural fairness and inclusion.  CSI Founder Maya Wiley, a noted Food Justice Advocate, delivered CEFS’ annual Sustainable Agriculture Lecture in February 2013.

The full report, as well as an executive summary, can be found on CSI’s website.