Our promise for a more inclusive farming future
“Food is life. It is necessity and pleasure, family and community, culture and power. When plentiful and freely shared, food creates healthy communities and strong societies; when scarce or unfairly distributed, it damages and, in time kills, spirit, body, family, community.”
‘Access to food’ is a phrase that has been part of the Freight Farms lexicon since our company’s inception. For years, we have championed the mission of giving everyone access to fresh and healthy food–yet, we have never addressed the underlying reasons for why this mission can even exist in today’s world. Why is food–arguably the single most important and ubiquitous social and cultural phenomenon–not universally available? Why is it something we have to fight for, instead of having it guaranteed? Why do people living in the same city, even in the same neighborhood, have such wildly different experiences?
The same communities that historically “lack” fresh food–Black, Latinx, and Indigenous neighborhoods around the country–are also the places that are responsible for the resurgence of urban farming over the past few decades. For them, urban farming has been a path to overcoming the systemic racism and discriminatory policies that limit access to grocery stores and other fresh food outlets that allow people to thrive.
In failing to acknowledge these fundamental flaws within the food system, we have failed the very communities that we want to uplift. This is why, with time, empathy, knowledge, and introspection, we want to create a change.
To facilitate the kind of soul-searching needed to do this, we created the Open Doors team at Freight Farms in June 2020. As a group, we are dedicated to viewing our business, values, hiring, company culture, and farmer community through the lens of diversity, inclusion, and justice. The following is a promise to our farmers and the wider urban farming community:
Our promise
To embrace and seek greater inclusivity and diversity of all kinds within our company and our industry, we will:
Amplify, empower, and inspire.
Building an inclusive and diverse farmer community starts by sharing the stories and wisdom of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and LGBTQA+ farmers. It is through these stories that we will empower future farmers.
Educate.
We can’t change what we don’t know. The Freight Farms team will stay inquisitive and engaged in the past, present, and future of agricultural, food, and urban farming policies. We will share our growing knowledge and awareness with the greater Freight Farms community.
Support.
We will actively support aspiring Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and LGBTQA+ individuals in their search to find the right financial resources. It is our duty to serve these groups as they work to overcome the systemic hurdles that prevent them from farming.
Evolve.
We will work tirelessly to create effective and affordable farming solutions so that anyone, anywhere can bring the joy of good food to their communities.
Since every journey begins with a first step, here are the first two things we are already doing to uphold our promise:
In an effort to amplify, empower, and inspire we recently spotlighted the amazing work of Pillsbury United Communities, one of our non-profit customers who–in addition to directly addressing the needs for food access in Minneapolis–also runs dozens of other important community initiatives surrounding community health, education, jobs creation, and more. Learn all about them.
In an effort to educate and support, we have launched the Freight Farms Strong Roots Database. This database is an aggregate of the references, articles, databases, organizations, and other online resources that Freight Farms is using to learn more, and it will grow over time. We encourage our whole community to use and contribute to the database. Tell us about the sources that have helped you, the initiatives that have inspired you, and the issues that have driven you to action. Contact us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, email at growfoodhere@freightfarms.com, or using this form.
This is only the beginning. Follow our Food for Thought segment to stay up to date on our discussion of the most pressing issues in food access and inclusivity, and to track our progress towards our goals.