Josh Hughes
Besides Majora Carter’s talk, Western hosted an array of other Earth Day related events. Earlier in the day on April 25, volunteers from the local non-profit Community 2 Community spoke about their work in the Bellingham community. Additionally, the Underground hosted an Earth Day Celebration concert with Bob Fossil, Porch Cat and Crooked Neighbors performing.
Community to Community is women-led, grassroots organization that is committed to “creating systemic change through strategic alliances that strengthen local and global movements towards social, economic and environmental justice,” as their mission statement reads. They’re mainly interested in restoring food justice, helping farm workers and promoting community relationships.
Speaking for the organization were Civic Engagement Coordinator Edgar Franks, Food Systems Organizer Alex McIntyre and two other volunteers working closely with the Birchwood neighborhood in Bellingham.
“Having women included in this panel and discussion and not just having myself, a male, speak is important,” said McIntyre before giving the mic to Jessie, one of the volunteers helping the Birchwood community find access to food.
“There’s a lot of diversity in the Birchwood neighborhood— it’s one of the most racially diverse, but it’s also one of the poorest,” said Jessie. “And they don’t have any access to fresh produce because of the closure of Albertson’s.”
In May, 2016, the Birchwood neighborhood grocery store, Albertson’s, shut down, leaving the community without any close access to fresh food.
McIntyre described the area as a “food desert”, where many working people without access to transportation have very little options of what they can eat.
Community 2 Community works on a variety of projects, but their talk was mostly centered on this issue of food deserts and how corporations control everything from where our kids go to school to where we buy food, and what we have the option of buying.
They’ve hosted protests in the Birchwood community to get the attention of Bellingham City Council and get them to take a stance on the issue. After being sold to a property management real estate firm based in California, the vacant Albertson’s will likely become a fitness facility, which raises issues of gentrification in the neighborhood.
“We believe this isn’t unique or accidental— historically people of color and low-income community members continue to be intentionally marginalized,” read their statement on the issue.
Those looking to get involved with C2C as a volunteer can email c2cinfo@foodjustice.org to request an application.