“We don’t look at food justice as an issue in itself. It’s not something that exists in a bubble—it’s connected to so many different systems of oppression.” This is a point that Joyti Chand, a founding member of the Crenshaw/Baldwin Village Mutual Aid Project (one of Food Forward’s community partners), stresses during our conversation. Joyti and her fellow volunteer, Miyoshi Morrow, spoke with Food Forward about their efforts to provide access to healthy foods in the Crenshaw area. For them, the free food program is also a way to build community leadership and a culture of mutual aid in a neighborhood that is facing gentrification, economic disenfranchisement, and police violence. We spoke to Joyti and Miyoshi as part of a new blog series, Framing Food Justice, aimed at exploring the nuances of food justice here in Southern California. We know that food justice is about more than just food—it’s about racism, classism, access, opportunity, housing, sovereignty, and so much more. And the best way to peel back those layers is to talk to the people who are deeply involved in food justice work in our communities. Throughout this series, we’ll be speaking to people from different backgrounds about what food justice means to them, the barriers to food justice in their community, and their vision for the future.
Food Forward: To start, can you introduce yourself and tell us about the work you do with Crenshaw/Baldwin Village Mutual Aid Program?
Miyoshi Morrow: I’ve been involved with Crenshaw/Baldwin Village Mutual Aid Program for 3 years. I would visit my cousin in the neighborhood and always see Joyti giving out fresh produce—and I noticed the need in the community by the long lines of people who came out. I asked how I could help out and have been volunteering ever since. Joyti Chand: I’m one of the founding members of the program, I’m also a resident in the community. It’s been three and a half years [since we started] the Crenshaw/Baldwin Village Mutual Aid Program. This effort came out of other work I was involved in, through the Stop LAPD spying coalition and addressing LAPD raids where our community members were targeted. So, while increasing access to healthy food is a big part of the work we’re doing, the other part is developing the relationships and developing leadership of our neighbors. Myself, Miyoshi, and Elijah, and a few other really key community members are
the core team members, and then we have a body of community members who also represent our work.
FF: Is your work at Crenshaw/Baldwin Village Mutual Aid Program paid or volunteer?
JC: The program is fully volunteer-based and resident-run. We’re simply just residents in the community who took on this effort. I work full time in a domestic violence, rape crisis, and homeless shelter. MM: I’m a case manager at St. Joseph Center. I work with the homeless population and clients who are housed, helping them with case management and maintaining housing. JC: We definitely bring our paid work into the effort of the food program. Our sensitivity is towards people who lack access, people who are unhoused, as well as women and LGBTQIA+ people in the community that are most at risk.
FF: What does food justice mean to you?
MM: Food justice is something that emerges from communities in response to food insecurity. It’s being able to have access to healthy foods at affordable prices within the community you live in. For me, I’m a pescatarian, so the majority of the time I’m only eating vegetables. But I can’t find everything I’m looking for in my community. I have to outsource, I have to go to other communities, far out, to find the food I’m able to eat. JC: We don’t look at food justice as an issue in itself. It’s not something that exists in a bubble—it’s connected to so many different systems of
oppression. One of the core principles we have at Crenshaw/Baldwin Village Mutual Aid Project is human rights for all. [That includes] access to basic resources like food, shelter, water, safety, and a clean sanitary environment. Those are rights that are often based on privilege, but those are human rights. So we see food justice as purely a human rights
issue. It’s the same as the right to live in a safe community; we don’t want to fear violence from the police, or fear violence from being evicted or being unhoused. Also, I think food justice kind of implies what someone from the outside can do for us. And in the community that we live in, and all across Los Angeles, or any low-income community, over many generations, people have in many ways internalized a savior complex, that someone from the outside is going to do [this] for us. So, one of our core principles is to make that cultural shift, to instill in the community the idea of mutual aid. We always say mutual aid, not charity. We’re not a charity program.
FF: What systems of oppression affect your community’s ability to access healthy foods, and how?
MM: South LA has only a limited number of outlets offering healthy foods, and the lack of access to nutritious food contributes to serious public health problems like diabetes and obesity. And the food being brought to our community isn’t held to the same standard that I see in wealthier or upper-class communities. We had two Ralph’s in the community, and the community had to [close one down] because they were selling spoiled meats, old produce, and just the lowest of the low quality food. Just because our community is lower-income, that doesn’t mean—like Joyti said, it’s about human rights, basic human rights. JC: As far as systems of oppression, we wanted to point your attention to some of the numbers on the income gap and the disparity. The Crenshaw Subway Coalition released a report about the issue of gentrification and the economic and financial displacement of low-income people. And in our community, we’re really talking about, first and foremost, long-term, historical Black residents. People that have lived here for 30, 40, 50 years that are being pushed out. The report also goes into the issue of cultural displacement—when people in our community are displaced out to other non-white communities, which really also increases the risk of violence [against them]. The report finds that in the city of LA, for a person or family to afford a 2-bedroom apartment at market rate, they have to earn about $104k/year. If you look at the community we’re a part of, in Leimert Park, the annual income is $36k, and then if you look at Baldwin Village Census Tract, it’s $19 or maybe $20k. The zip code they cite is the zip code that I live in and the zip code that our Mutual Aid Programs are located in. So as far as our community, we’re talking about a very, very low-income community, that is literally being pushed out through evictions, through different housing policies. In our community, there is definitely a very high police presence from LAPD. And we constantly see the harassment and the treatment of people that are unhoused or have mental health issues in the community. We don’t feel that when we’re talking about access issues, the issue is that there’s not a budget or there’s not resources. Because when we look at the city’s budget, and the budget around policing, the LAPD’s budget is close to 1.9 billion dollars, and not only that, about 53 or 54 percent of the unrestricted funding for the city is going to policing. Because the city has not prioritized low-income housing, across the city and in our community we see more and more people that are directly unhoused, anywhere from children to senior citizens. And with COVID we see it getting much worse. Additionally, seeing the impact of [COVID] on people who are undocumented as well—a lot of this is actually getting worse, in terms of COVID and access. In our community, if you take a walk in our neighborhood, you see slum housing, then you see gentrified apartments, and there are very little recreational centers, mental health facilities, or any place for children to gather and have social time. There is such a lack of financial resources for the community, and this includes access to food and food justice. We’re clear that the resources are there, it’s just that our community is not being prioritized within the city. I also wanted to talk about an incident I witnessed at the Albertson’s in our community. I walked in to do some shopping, and before I knew it, the store employees were chasing out an older Black man, a community member, who was probably close to 80 years old. The worker at the store shoved and body-slammed this elder onto the floor. The next thing you know, [the worker] had a small bag in his hand—[the man] had taken a couple of sandwiches and food items. And I see the bag, and him being thrown onto the floor, and the punches, and then I see people in the store watching what is going on, and the alarm of community members that this elder is being assaulted over food. But on the flip side of that, I see other community members who are congratulating the staff. For me, that incident was so telling, because it really shows, first, the lack of access, and second, it shows that the interests of these corporations are not in the community, or in [making sure] a community member wouldn’t be physically assaulted for taking a basic resource. What is also highlighted for me is the classism and the racism. If we were in another neighborhood and this incident happened, and it was not an older black man, the response [from the store] would have been completely different. [In this one example] there are so many systems of oppression involved, from the budgeting, to the lack of allocation of resources, to the policing, to how these corporations treat community members, to how community members that are also low-income have internalized that treatment. For [us], it just makes our work ten-fold. When we are at the Food Program we are constantly talking about these dynamics and trying to highlight them so we can build off of this premise and identify community leaders, and help to build our own internal community effort.
FF: If you were talking to someone who has never been to your community or heard of your work, what would you want
them to know about what the issues are, what the solutions are, and who’s driving the solutions?
MM: I would say more access to affordable, healthy food resources. The other issues [I would highlight] are the rent increases, property managers not making repairs, the gentrification, and the cost of living going up while living conditions aren’t changing. And like Joyti mentioned, there are no community centers for the kids in the community. They were trying to tear down the YMCA to build condos—with no regard for the community around! There definitely needs to be more community engagement: ask the community, come out and talk to the community. It seems like it’s all about money. When you start tearing down the YMCA, knowing that there are no other recreational area for these kids to play in, and you’re trying to build condos in a low-income community, that makes no sense!
FF: And when you say community engagement, do you mean from the developers, from the city government, are their
specific folks that you wish were more engaged?
MM: When the city has meetings, they need to do more to put it out to the community. We have the internet, we have mail, so they need to put forth the effort to engage the community more. To [show us] that “we know you’re in this community and you have a say-so.” A lot of people in this community don’t know they have a say-so, or they don’t know who to express everything to. JC: There definitely is a stigma towards the community we live in. A lot of times when someone is not familiar with Baldwin Village or the Crenshaw area, there’s a misperception that this is an unsafe area. It is very racialized and very class-based. But the narrative that we are really highlighting is that there are people who have lived in this community for 20, 30, 40, even 50 years. We actually have an elder in our community who has lived in the community for a total of 48 years. And in our Mutual Aid Program, the core body and the gatekeepers, are the elders who have been here for decades, who have a long-term investment. For me, that’s a really important narrative. Where some parts of Los Angeles are still experiencing an influx, our community has people who have lived here for many, many generations. And as far as the Food Program, we see long-term residents who are really intent on building the trust and relationships between neighbors and wanting to step up. This narrative is also about the right to stay. People have a right to remain in their community where they feel comfortable and safe, and to not be pushed out. This is not a transient community, where people can kind of get used to the gentrification or the changing of the neighborhood. There are many, many people that have decades deep in this community and have a lot of love for the community.
FF: It sounds like there’s a kind of natural organizing that’s happening within the food program. Are there other
community efforts, organizing efforts to fight the gentrification that’s happening?
JC: Our program has some loose connections to the tenant’s union, the Crenshaw Subway Coalition, and other groups that are really focused on policing. While we’re definitely aligned with those other organizations and building that coalition, a lot of energy has been spent on first just identifying who our neighbors are, so [the program] is actually coming from the community, and not people who don’t necessarily live in the community, and don’t necessarily understand the dynamics in the community. We took it upon ourselves to do that hard bread and butter work so it’s not [being done] by people who are parachuting in from the outside.
FF: What’s something you wish people understood about this issue?
JC: When we talk about food justice and food insecurity, it doesn’t exist in a bubble. It’s definitely a part of a larger system of oppression and lack of access. But also there’s a lot of ways that we’ve internalized these systems, and there’s the sheer disempowerment of people in the community. As individual people, as neighbors, we have a role to play in bringing in the resources, of taking care of people that are near us.
FF: What is your vision for a more just community and society, and how do we get there? How can people contribute?
M: My vision is for access to more opportunities within the community. More programs in place. Our community needs to unite, volunteer, we can fundraise, have more community meetings and hear the community out. As far as how people can contribute, we work with homeowners who have excess food that they’re growing in their backyard, if they’re gardeners, or if they have trees that have fruit. If you have a home and you have trees that are giving you too much fruit, we accept donations from that. We also accept diaper donations, PPE, hand sanitizer, and monetary donations. There are many ways you can help out our cause! J: Our vision is for mutual aid. We don’t look at our effort as something that’s [going to] parachute in or parachute out. It’s really a long term effort of empowering people within the community and making a cultural shift, so that each of us has a sense of responsibility over ourselves and our [neighbors]. Our vision to instill that [sense of responsibility]. And Miyoshi mentioned the homeowners’ program we have—In the long run, we don’t want to be dependent on agencies to provide us the food, [we want to develop relationships with] people who have access to land, homeowners or community-based organizations or community farms, so we have an independent source of food. So while we truly, truly appreciate the partnership with Food Forward, it was really eye-opening that when COVID hit, the food we were getting from the farmers market became inaccessible (because Food Forward stopped recovering produce at certain markets). And of course, now we’re going to the Produce Pit Stop to do pickups, but it just really made us realize that we have no independent source of produce, and actually it should be coming from the community that has access to land. So that’s really the direction that we want to go towards. And as far as the city, and the policies, and the budget, it’s not that people are unaware, it’s that they maybe feel that they won’t make a difference, or that they’re not being engaged, or that there are many barriers in that engagement. So we want to really build our capacity to engage our community on those issues. JC: We’ve found that there are homeowners who really want to contribute but they just don’t know how to contribute. And then there’s also breaking the bubble between renters and homeowners, especially homeowners that are more recently moving into the community. They also see that they have a role too, that while they may have greater access [than] their neighbor who doesn’t, they have a role to play in that as well. MM: And if people want to receive food, we give out food on Fridays at the Crenshaw YMCA on Santa Rosalia Dr. at 5:30 – 6 pm JC: We are also looking for volunteers, so if anyone wants to volunteer they can contact us!