KalaSalon: Food Justice — Fair Food in Troubled Times

Name: KalaSalon: Food Justice — Fair Food in Troubled Times
Start: 2025-09-25T18:30:00-04:00
End: 2025-09-25T20:30:00-04:00
Location: Shakespeare's Pub

Schedule

Thu Sep 25 2025 at 06:30 pm to 08:30 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Shakespeare's Pub | Kalamazoo, MI

FREE & open to all! What's the fallout from recent attacks on food workers, USDA programs, food banks, farmers, and our food system in general? What is food justice? How is our community stepping up to the plate (so to speak)? Let's talk on Sept. 25! Special guests include Jackie Mitchell of Urban Exposure Initiative LLC (uxi4u.com) and Daniel Oropeza, Michigan Organizer for the United Farmworkers Foundation (ufwfoundation.org).
From the Center for American Progress: "Safe, secure, and abundant food is essential to the economy and the quality of life Americans expect and children deserve. Programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Farm to School grants, and food inspection and safety standards from the U.S. Department of Agriculture have bolstered the abundance, availability, and quality of America’s food supply. ... [This] administration’s disastrous funding cuts to food programs across the country are putting America’s health and economy at risk. Cuts to funding that schools and food banks rely on to provide fresh food from local farmers are already proving to be devastating to communities across the country..."
And from Foodtank: "Farm workers report they are being 'hunted like animals.' And more than 530,000 immigrants have had their work permits terminated, including hundreds of thousands of people who work on farms, in hotels and restaurants, and in food processing facilities. Adding to the increasingly hostile environment, the government recently announced they will cut access to basic healthcare provided by federally funded clinics to undocumented people. ... In some cases, the consequences are already clear. Michele Corigliano, the Executive Director of the Salt Lake Area Restaurant Association states that policy decisions have 'messed up our industry.' And a Florida farmer says the government is 'killing farming.'
A report from the American Immigration Council states, 'Stories around the country already suggest that chilling effects are not only making immigrants themselves afraid to participate in public life, but affecting the institutions with which they interact.'”