Developing food justice policy solutions and educational resources to address food apartheid in Grand Rapids, MI

Abstract

Contemporary racial divisions that characterize many urban food systems in the U.S are the products of longstanding, intersecting and structural inequalities. Despite this, many efforts at addressing food injustice fail to incorporate a critical, historicized approach to their work, resulting in many ineffectual policies and initiatives from city governments aimed solely at addressing short-term food inequities. This project has collaborated with South East Market to develop food justice policy solutions and educational materials that aim to address the structural injustices of food apartheid in the city of Grand Rapids, MI with a specific focus on the historically African-American neighborhoods of the city. Through centering a food justice approach and applying the critical lens of food apartheid to Grand Rapids, our project sought to address the multiple historical, and intersectional systems that produce contemporary food insecurity and injustice within the BIPOC communities of Grand Rapids. This report will review existing literature related to food injustice and food apartheid before exploring the conceptual application of food apartheid to Grand Rapids, linking our project’s historical research to contemporary inequalities and the two deliverables we produced in order to address these issues.