Activist Seeking Food Justice to Speak on Nov. 8

Event Information

Time: 11 a.m.
Date: Thursday, Nov. 8
Place: Room 101, Rosenfield Center, 1115 Eighth Ave.

LaDonna Redmond’s lecture is titled “Protecting Our Potential: Imagining Justice for our Food System and Beyond.” She began her advocacy for a fairer food system because she wanted healthy, organic food free from pesticides and GMOs to help combat allergies her young son had developed. But that food wasn’t available in West Chicago. So, she became an advocate for food justice and helped create community access to fresh, healthy, pesticide-free, and GMO-free food.

Speaker

LaDonna Redmond achieved her goals of bringing healthy and fresh food to West Chicago by converting vacant city lots into urban farms, creating retail food enterprises to sell fresh fruit and vegetables in the community, and replacing junk food with salad bars in Chicago Public Schools. Redmond is co-founder of the Chicago Food Systems Collaborative, a university and community partnership that has explored the issues of food access and public health in African-American communities.

Redmond, who now lives in Minnesota, has ramped up her food activism, raising awareness of how food with little nutritional value affects the health of a community by contributing to a wide array of threats, including obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Her efforts have expanded to include the launch of the Campaign for Food Justice Now, which brings to light themes of social justice, race, class, and gender to the food system and food movement. Moreover, the campaign addresses these concerns through developing community-based solutions, promoting social change, and teaching advocacy.