Want To Help End Racism In The Food System?

For those of you who’ve read this newsletter semi-regularly since the beginning, the name Soul Fire Farm might ring a bell (I’ve written about it a few times). They’re a working/teaching farm in upstate New York dedicated to ending racism and injustice in the food system. Their programming includes “farmer training for Black and Brown growers, reparations and land return initiatives for northeast farmers, food justice workshops for urban youth, home gardens for city-dwellers living under food apartheid, doorstep harvest delivery for food insecure households, and systems and policy education for public decision-makers.” I also get loads of inspiration and wisdom from Leah Penniman (co-founder of Soul Fire), and interviewed her about her incredible book, Farming While Black, when we first launched Heated.

In short, Soul Fire is one of the most important food organizations I know of. If you’re an anti-racist, or someone interested in fighting racism in food, you should read about and support them. Because, now more than ever, they need our help.

You can read all about it on their GoFundMe page, but here’s the gist: Since opening, Soul Fire has operated mostly out of the living room of a single family farmhouse. But now that their programs reach 10,000 people a year (incredible), their county health department has notified them that if they don’t comply with commercial facility guidelines, they’ll have to cease operations.

Soul Fire’s work is too important to let this happen. They’re raising money to fund the construction of a program center, guest lodge, classroom, and commercial drinking water and wastewater system to bring them fully up to code, and I would be foolish not to use this platform to help get the word out. To learn more (and donate, if you feel inspired), click here or on the photo below.

Thanks for listening; I truly appreciate it. See you Tuesday.

—Mark