NCG’s member-informed advocacy guidelines touch on many social and environmental aspects of the food system, including human health, environmental responsibility, local and organic food and farming, and “inclusive economies,” where there is opportunity for all people to live with dignity, support themselves and their families and contribute to their communities.
While food co-ops have these goals for our food system, take it from your national advocacy team, we won’t be able to bring these changes about on our own.
Introducing HEAL Food Alliance
On behalf of NCG’s Advocacy & Sustainability team, I’m happy to introduce everyone to NCG’s newest advocacy partner, HEAL Food Alliance.
HEAL, which stands for Health, Environment, Agriculture and Labor, is a national nonprofit alliance led by People of the Global Majority that was born out of the knowledge that no single individual, organization or sector can transform systems in isolation. With goals that align closely with those of NCG food co-ops, HEAL is a good fit for partnership in our shared work to change the food system for the better.
Much like NCG, HEAL is a member-led organization. Collectively, their members represent over two million rural and urban farmers, fishers, farm and food chain workers, Indigenous groups, scientists, public health advocates, policy experts, community organizers and activists. Core members of HEAL’s alliance include the Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive (CoFED), Food Chain Workers Alliance, Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI); and current NCG partners National Black Food and Justice Alliance, and National Farm to School Network.
Support for the Farm Bill and “Real Food in Every ’Hood”
NCG is not joining the alliance, as we currently do not have capacity to manage all the responsibilities of membership, but we are contributing financially to help meet organizational needs in their work on the Farm Bill and in support of their platform for “Real Food in Every ’Hood,” which involves developing infrastructure for worker- and neighborhood-owned food co-ops in response to food apartheid.
In my introductory call with HEAL’s executive director, Navina Khanna, they communicated a longstanding appreciation for food co-ops, and they were very happy to learn that food co-ops have organized nationally through NCG to strengthen each other and increase our influence on the national food system. We look forward to finding ways to work together to make a more equitable, just and regenerative food system a reality.
HEAL Food Alliance Vision
For all people to have the right and means to produce, procure, prepare, share, and eat food that’s nutritionally and culturally appropriate, free from exploitation of themselves and others, and to be in their full power in harmony with the rest of nature.
