An Interview with Owen Lavine Regarding Food Equity

The letter that caused a shake up at the SLO Food Bank and why the charity model is unjust.

I have been heartened by the responses myself and my fellow (former) coworkers have been getting to the Open Letter to Our Food Banks. There is clearly a consciousness within the anti-hunger community about the need to address the root causes of hunger, and that the nonprofit sector has so far been derelict in its responsibilities to do so.

My coworkers and I have been invited by the Global Solidarity Alliance for Food, Health and Social Justice, which is coordinated by Rights Not Charity, to speak about our experiences and the ideas presented in the letter.

Closing the Hunger Gap, an organization dedicated to supporting systemic change in the anti-hunger community, also hosted us for an online conversation after some of their members caught wind of the letter.

Andy Fisher, author of Big Hunger - a must-read text for anyone interested in poverty and food insecurity - has also expressed his support:

Andy Fisher @Fisherfood

A bare knuckled cage fighting look at why food banks are capitalism’s b- - - -

Kody Cava @KodyCava

Hey @Fisherfood, I was fired by my food bank employer for sending out this open letter arguing for systemic change in the anti-hunger sector: https://t.co/a41a7CZ4wR

And the Center for Hunger Free Communities, an arm of Drexel University:

HungerFreeCenter @HungerFreeCtr

@KodyCava @oregonfoodbank A very accurate assessment of the problems with our current charity approach to addressing food insecurity. Many specific, achievable actions noted that could make a real difference. Thank you for your courage in speaking out.

Building deep coalitions - coalitions that are built on the understanding that we must be unafraid to be explicit about the root causes of our vast inequality - between well-established organizations, scrappy grassroots movements, people with experiences of hunger and poverty, and across political ideologies is essential to combating our inept ruling class; a class which is dependent upon our collective immiseration for their continued survival.

The charity model that nonprofits build themselves around is disempowering and broken. It is time to engage in the difficult work of organizing ourselves to pit power against power. Our communities are ripe for such action. I am glad to see that people are already taking on this task.

Shortly after I sent the open letter to our food banks, Cal Poly Student, Mustang News writer, and DSA SLO member Owen Lavine reached out to me to see if I would be interested in discussing the issues and ideas presented in the open letter. We sat down (virtually) for a 30-minute interview. Here it is: