Author: Food for the Spirit

Food for the Spirit is a non-profit organization committed to racial healing, ecological justice, and equitable food systems. Using the arts and creative facilitation, we cultivate spaces for people to learn from each other and step into leadership roles honoring their unique talents, perspectives, and abilities. Based in the City of Buffalo, Western New York, and the Finger Lakes regions, we engage in training modalities and healing practices from national movement organizations and systems-thinkers to support local communities.

Freedom Gardens Harvest Celebration

by Food for the Spirit, posted in Events, Freedom Gardens
Register for a free gift at https://bit.ly/3lxNLJh.

Naima Penniman, Soul Fire Farm, featured speaker at First Annual Freedom Garden Harvest Celebration

The first annual Freedom Gardens Harvest Celebration featuring Naima Penniman, spoken word/hip hop artist and Program Director of Soul Fire Farm will be included in the 2020 Buffalo Food Sovereignty Week. Celebrate with us as we tell the story of our resilience, our self sufficiency, our self determination and our desire to thrive and not just survive the COVID virus. As gardeners we were successful in growing organic food in our own backyards! This is unprecedented! You are invited to sign into Zoom on Tuesday, October 13th at 7pm to meet our volunteers, sponsors, the gardeners and their families, hear the plans for next year, learn how to become a freedom gardener and share in our triumphs!

Register for your free event ticket(s) on Eventbrite.com. The first 20 to register on line will get a “gift”!

Where: Join Zoom meeting online https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85164056444

Meeting ID: 851 6405 6444

One tap mobile: +19294362866,.,85164056444# US (New York) or

Dial your your location: +1 929 436 2866 US (New York)

“We ‘grow’ to support ourselves, control our destinies, and provide for our families while building a healing community that is healthy and well.”

Email: yourfreedomgarden@gmail.com for more information or if you have problems accessing Zoom. You must download the Zoom app if you are new to Zoom.

Buffalo Freedom Gardens Partners: Soul Fire Farms, Food for the Spirit, Buffalo Food Equity Network (BFEN), Grassroots Gardens, CopperTown Block Club, Access to A-Free-Ka, Juneteenth Festival of Buffalo, NY, Seeding Resilience, Buffalo Love Your Block, CCE Erie County Master Gardener Program, WNY COVID-19 Community Response Fund Buffalo, Fruition Seeds, Urban Fruits & Veggies, Feed Buffalo, Black Ink Press, and the African Heritage Food Co-op

Buffalo Food Sovereignty Weeks in 2020

by Food for the Spirit, posted in Buffalo Food Stories Project, Events, Food Justice, Freedom Gardens, Gardening Days

In 2019, we hosted Buffalo Food Sovereignty Week and it was a wonderful way to galvanize around the good work Buffalo Food Equity Network members and partners are doing in the community. (Click here to read about last year’s events). So this year we are doing it again!

In October 2020, during harvest season, local organizations are collaborating once again on several events to improve the health and economy for communities of color in Buffalo. With an emphasis on Black and Indigenous community members and food systems leaders, the events will bring Buffalo communities together to learn with and from each other.

  • Gardening Days – On Saturday, October 10, Food for the Spirit will partner with Freedom Gardens, the Lincoln Memorial Church Garden and Food Pantry, Neuwater & Associates, and the CopperTown Block Club to host a Gardening Days event at two community garden sites stewarded by African American garden leaders in Buffalo.  The virtual event will include stories of the garden and information about these important initiatives.  All are welcome to join the virtual event, which will take place online on Saturday, October 10 at 10:00 AM.  To register, visit http://bit.ly/GardeningDays2020.
  • Freedom Gardens Harvest Celebration – On Tuesday, October 13, everyone is invited to join Freedom Gardens and Food for the Spirit for a celebratory event with Naima Penniman of Soul Fire Farm. This participatory and poetic event will feature inspiring solutions from Freedom Gardens, Soul Fire Farm, and solutions from other BIPOC-led organizations and movements, both past and present. All are welcome to join us on Tuesday, October 13 from 7:00 to 8:30 PM. To register, visit https://bit.ly/3lxNLJh.
  • Building Foundations for Food Sovereignty: Collective Leadership & Storytelling – On Wednesday, October 21, the Nexus Community Leadership Learning Initiative will co-host a “virtual visit” with members of the Buffalo Food Equity Network to learn about shared decision-making and leadership processes that are advancing food sovereignty in Buffalo, NY.  All are welcome to join this virtual event, which will take place online on Wednesday, October 21 from 12:00 to 2:00 PM (EST).  To register, visit http://bit.ly/BfloFoodStories2020_Registration.

Everyone is invited to these free and engaging public events! Come out to learn what is going on to make healthy and sustainable diets available and affordable to everyone.

Black Girls’ Retreat

by Food for the Spirit, posted in Ecological Justice, Racial Healing, Retreat

WHEN: September 2020
WHERE: Rochester Folk Art Guild, Middlesex, NY
CONTACT: Rebekah (at) foodforthespirit.org

Food for the Spirit’s (F4tS) Black Girls’ Retreat offers us space to retreat on the land to self-care within a small community of like-minded individuals. Over the course of two days and two nights, in community with other Black women, we will nurture ourselves and deepen our relationships with ourselves, each other, and nature.

Our intentions are to create a space where we practice radical self-care, self-love, and liberation. The retreat will provide us time and space where we can slow down, quiet down, and build community with each other. To deepen our love for ourselves and to build community, we will weave in ritual and celebration in ways that are meaningful to us.

The retreat will be held at the Rochester Folk Art Guild’s East Hill Farm, a 50-year-old intentional community and craft center located on 350-acres in the Finger Lakes in central New York. Harriet Tubman’s homestead is just an hour drive away. There are many creeks and several beautiful natural lakes nearby, and at the East Hill Farm there is a pond and wooded areas with numerous walking trails.

Overnight accommodations are rustic and will include camping on the land and some beds. Six meals, snacks, and beverages will be provided throughout. If needed, there may also be reimbursement available for travel costs.

COVID-statement: We will have plenty of gloves, extra masks, and hand sanitizer available, and we will ask that each participant agrees to adhere to COVID safety guidelines including wearing masks when indoors.

Join us and take some time for yourself! To apply for our 2020 retreat, visit https://bit.ly/F4TS_OurRetreat.

Conversations in 2020 – Session 3

by Food for the Spirit, posted in Events, Racial Healing

[Click here to learn about the first session held on July 14, 2020, and click here to learn about the second session held on July 21, 2020.]

On Tuesday, July 28, we hosted our third and final session of Conversations on Race & Racism in 2020. Once again, we had nearly 50 people in attendance and a video recording of that session is embedded below.

This week, we were joined by a special guest, Danielle Ohlson of Newark Central Schools. Danielle is also a trainer with Wayne Action for Racial Equality. For further inquiry and action opportunities, several resources were offered at the close of Tuesday’s presentation. Those resources are included below.

In 2020, Conversations on Race & Racism are sponsored by 13 libraries in the Pioneer Library Systems. A list of the sponsoring libraries are below.

For those of you who were unable to attend last Tuesday’s program, here it is on YouTube:

Here are the resources for inquiry and action:

Here is a list of the libraries that sponsored this event:

  • Naples Library
  • Newark Public Library
  • Wadsworth Library
  • Marion Public Library
  • Palmyra Community Library
  • Lyons Public Library
  • Geneva Public Library
  • Livonia Public Library
  • Victor Farmington Library
  • Sodus Community Library
  • Clyde-Savannah Public Library
  • Gorham Free Library
  • Macedon Public Library