This month's newsletter at a glance...
  1. What We Stand For
  2. Educational Resources: Background and Intersectionality
  3. Webinars and Trainings
  4. Quick look: Case studies
  5. Take action!
What We Stand For
Dear HFCC members and partners,

Throughout the last few weeks, we have seen a civil rights movement of an unprecedented scale creating a mixture of emotions and spearheading conversations around racial and social justice. It has been a time of introspection for many of us as we consider how we work and interact with systems ingrained with oppression and racism as well as how we can be a part of creating change and systematic reform to move our communities to be more just and equitable. 

We, at Texas Hunger Initiative (THI), have been reflecting upon the role that race plays into the causes, effects, and solutions to hunger, and we recognize the necessity of approaching strategies to address hunger from a race equity lens. At this pivotal time, the THI team is taking a mile-high view of our work to ensure we are doing all that we can to give race and equity issues the care and attention they deserve as we support coalitions and communities across Texas. 

Coalitions build inclusive communities that engage clients and people of color in creating solutions and actively work to address systemic barriers within the food system. Inclusion is a sense of belonging, opportunity, and the ability to contribute. It is the assurance that the diversity we bring is welcomed, valued, respected, and treated fairly. If we are diverse but not inclusive, then equity is not there. Being equitable is about creating fairness. As we build our coalitions, we need to incorporate racial equity at all levels: stakeholder and community engagement, developing and implementing community assessments, building our leadership teams, developing new leadership, action teams, and the programs we implement. We must ensure that we build our coalitions with the hope that we can together- collaboratively- change the systems that are not working, and we must recognize any inequalities built into these systems in order to make true, impactful change. 

Moving forward, we will be looking at how we can contribute to food justice and equity within our systems. “Food justice is a holistic and structural view of the food system that sees healthy food as a human right and addresses structural barriers to that right. Food justice efforts work not only for access to healthy food but for an end to the structural inequities that lead to unequal health outcomes.” ( https://foodprint.org/issues/food-justice/ ) Food justice is complex, providing many entry points for change (e.g., reducing food deserts, ownership and control of land, farmworkers' rights). We encourage you to explore this concept in more detail along with us.

In this newsletter you will find many resources to help you and your coalitions as we move forward to learn more about this issue, and how it affects the work we are all doing. For more resources, visit our website. As your partner in this learning process, we want to ensure we share and support, as well as listen. We hope that you will join us in using this pivotal time to step back and use an intentional race equity lens to guide the work for our communities, coalitions, organizations, and individual efforts to address hunger. Thank you for your work and partnership.

THI’s Hunger Free Community Coalitions Team
Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty
Educational Resources
Read, watch and listen to the historical significance of food insecurity and race
Background on Racial Equity and Historical Injustices in the U.S.
CitySquare, a Dallas based nonprofit that focuses on fighting poverty, has an extensive resource page full of resources related to Social Justice and Racial Equity.
Seeing White is both a Race Equity Institute recommended, and Peabody nominated series that dives deep into the history of institutional racism in America, debunking common myths and filling in gaps left by American history books.
Intersectionality of Racial Equity and Food Security
Explore how the global food system of white supremacy is a barrier to having a food system that ensures justice for all members of society.
According to this article, ending hunger in the United States is within reach. But it requires two things — first, that we acknowledge the role of racial inequality in the high hunger and poverty rates among communities of color, and second, that we work together to tackle these inequalities in our workforce, communities, and schools.
Webinars and Trainings
Upcoming opportunities to learn more about Racial Equity
Racial Equity, Accountability and Leadership of Social Work Practice During COVID
When: Jul. 15th, Aug. 19th, Sep. 16th 2020 12:00-1:00PM CST
Register here , Click on the image to learn more. 
Anti-Racism Training
When: Registration reopens July 17th
Register and learn more here . 
Health Disparities, Conversation on Race and Health
When: July 23 10 AM CST
Register and learn more here . 
Save the Date: 9th Annual Dallas Hunger Summit
When: Sep. 18th and 25th, Oct. 2nd and 9th 10:00-11:30AM CST
Click the image to learn more.
Quick Look
A quick glance of two non-profit organizations taking active steps in promoting racial equity
Resource Media
The equity committee at Resource Media, a non-profit based in Oregon, originated from a card game amongst its staff. With different tables having slightly different rules of playing, and a constant rotation of players between tables, people were initially confused and even angry. These staff members soon realized how the explicit nuance in the rules from table to table reflected the unwritten rules that are deeply ingrained in their own company and society. “Like the players in the card game who internalized a set of unwritten rules, Resource Media also has its own unwritten rules that have nothing to do with effectiveness.” To recognize and address the gaps and blind spots that come from what is unwritten, Resource Media established an equity committee. To date, the committee has been working hard to create a transparent and inclusive culture; learn more about the effort here.
Fair Budget Coalition
The Fair Budget Coalition recognizes and is committed to addressing racial inequity. As a non-profit advocacy organization for budget and public policy initiatives based in Washington D.C, the coalition has incorporated racial equity awareness as part of its onboarding and actively reached out to marginalized groups to incorporate them into the decision-making process.  Check out the additional racial equity policies and resources Fair Budget Coalition utilizes here!
Take Action!
Here you will find some fantastic toolkits and activities that will help you build a more racially equitable organization!
This is an interactive tool that helps people understand the connections among racial equity, hunger, poverty, and wealth. It is a good first step for people unaware of structural inequality, a support tool for those who want a deeper understanding of structural inequality, and a source of information for experts who want to know the quantifiable economic impact of each policy that has widened today’s racial hunger, income, and wealth divides.  At the bottom of the page you can find resources on conducting the simulation.
The biggest hurdle some of us face is how to start improving our coalition. How should we initiate a conversation about racial equity that brings people on-board? The Talking About Race toolkit offers guidance and tips to help us overcome this initial challenge by outlining an action plan in three steps: Affirm, Counter, Transform .
Alliance to End Hunger has an amazing pamphlet summarizing why we should care about racial equity and outlining three actionable steps our coalitions can approach the issue. Let us all be educators , be advocates , and be accountable for our actions!
Many of us are familiar with the asset-based evaluation outlined in our toolkit. " Exploring Justice-Oriented Evaluation” is a short toolkit that looks at the inherent power imbalance between an evaluator and a participant when working on these types of evaluations . It also outlines three different types of social justice-oriented evaluations that can be incorporated into our asset-based assessments.
The Greenlining Institute has put together an extensive racial equity toolkit that guides coalitions and programs from the initial brainstorming stage to the final evaluative stage after they have implemented their equity policies. This is a great resource for those who want a more overarching view at how racially equitable changes can be initiated and sustained within and beyond their coalitions and programs.

Want to learn more about these intriguing racial equity issues? Bread for The World has a comprehensive overview on how applying a racial equity lens toward federal nutritional programs can help end hunger, and how we, as individual coalitions, can apply a racial equity lens to further our own causes. Check out this amazing resource!
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Connect With Us
Visit the Network website to find all the information shared above as well as other shared resources !
Share articles and research with other coalitions, stay up to date on upcoming events, and new resources.
Do you have any suggestions for the next newsletter? Contact our newsletter maestro, Brooke Dal Santo, at brooke_dalsanto@baylor.edu