VOICES FROM THE GRASSROOTS: A QUARTERLY

A platform for grassroots organizers and activists working in local and regional food systems to share their reflections and their work, both triumph and failure.


New World, Same Food: Mom's Dudh Sewai


by Raza Islam | June 18, 2021 

FOOD OF OUR ELDERS SERIES


Being the first one of the family to move to America is as daunting as it is exciting. It wasn't easy trying to adjust to an entirely new lifestyle. I was merely a child amidst all of this and I can't say I remember the transition. I for sure can remember it all being difficult. I can't begin to imagine how it must've been for my parents who arrived here with only their dreams keeping them afloat.

My mom is always telling me that, forgetting all else, one of the most difficult things she's had to do in America was try to keep our Bengali culture alive by passing it onto my brother and me.

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Empowerment, love and connection: lessons learned from the Farmacy Project, a food-is-medicine Program of Rutland, VT


by Emma Hileman | February 3, 2021

COVID-19 SERIES


A senior high school student volunteer named Tyler Carroll, walks out to the car that has pulled up along the backside of the old renovated iron works building, the site of the Vermont Farmers Food Center, in downtown Rutland, Vermont. "Hi! Can I get your name please?" Tyler then walks back to the table filled with bagged farm shares and puts one in their backseat, thanking them as they drive off with their local goods. The members are here to receive their produce prescription through the Farmacy Project, a program

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Johnny And His Cakes


by India Lott | May 5, 2021

FOOD OF OUR ELDERS SERIES


I entered through the doorway and was greeted with a loud pop! I shrieked, as any other 10-year-old would, and started running for the door.

But it was as fast as me. Actually, it was FASTER, than me. 

Even though I had longer-than-average legs for a 10-year-old, I still somehow could not outrun my biggest fear. Just when I thought I got away, I heard another pop! Only this time, it landed on the skin of my arm. I started wailing and curling up into a ball by the door, being "over dramatic" as my father put it, as the stinging pain grew on my arm. The pain was so unbearable. I looked up, searching for any person that would give 

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To Eat To Live


by Stayci Bell  |  January 21, 2021

POETRY SERIES



To eat to live is different for me than it is for you.

The abuse on this brown skin has been tried and true.

To eat to live is different for me than it is for you.

I've had to watch my daughter grow up from middle school to age 25 in these sex trafficked, abusive MN streets and there has been nothing that I can do.

To eat to live is different for me than it is for you.

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by Katie S. Martin

COVID-19 SERIES



When the COVID-19 crisis hit in mid-March, it exposed several weaknesses within the charitable food system of food banks and food pantries. Reductions in volunteers, donated food, and agencies available to provide food coincided with dramatic increases in numbers of people needing free food to make ends meet. This article explores how Foodshare, the regional food bank of Greater Hartford, Connecticut, and its network of food pantries have responded to the  ...

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Pear Tree

Tonia J. Leon  |  November 20, 2020

POETRY SERIES


Somewhere in Harlem

a pear tree grows

its roots are old

its roots are bare

for our garden folk

that's no reason to despair

life like those roots

may appear austere

but that tree keeps growing

in answer to prayers for life anew

little Jamie's fallen down

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THEMES 2022:

FOOD NETWORKS: last day to submit an article on this theme is June 30, 2022

GROWING MY OWN: last day to submit an article on this theme is September 30, 2022

FUNDRAISING & FOOD: last day to submit an article on this theme is December 31, 2022

We are currently accepting submissions for publication on the above themes on a rolling basis. 

Articles that are accepted for publication will be lightly edited.

Articles must be fewer than 1000 words.

Please also include: one or two photos and one or two sentences "about the author."