Stories of Philanthropic Leadership in Advancing Regional and ...

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REGIONAL OPPORTUNITYIII. D. BRIDGING SOCIAL,ECONOMIC, ANDGEOGRAPHIC DIVIDES:KENTUCKY’S COMMUNITYFARM ALLIANCEFunder Highlighted:Ford Foundation“Public markets can serve as engines of economicgrowth for urban and rural communities andtherefore as regional bridges crossing over theurban-rural divide.”— Miguel Garcia, Ford FoundationIt is an unfortunate fact that in a nation such as theUnited States, the lack of food security and accessremains a common struggle for low-incomecommunities. The struggles of disenfranchisedminorities and the working poor are reflected by highrates of disease that could decrease with educationand improved access to nutritious foods. This profileillustrates the successful redefinition of a farmers’market into a vehicle for community revitalizationand organizing where urban-rural and racial dividesare confronted and increased equity is pursued.Project ProfileIn 2000, the state of Kentucky received $3.4 billionin tobacco settlement dollars. Given directly to thestate, and under the control of the Governor’s Office,these funds inspired considerable debate regardingtheir use and the potential recipients. TheCommunity Farm Alliance, a group with a history oforganizing and policy work, advocated for makingdollars available to help family farmers transition outof the tobacco economy that accounts for roughlyone-third of a typical farm’s income. At the sametime, the Alliance successfully proposed that fundgovernance happen at the local level, with localcommunities setting their own goals for their fundallocations. This proposal provided an initial fundingbase to change the way family farms did business.Located in Kentucky, the Community Farm Alliance(CFA) is, “A statewide grassroots organization ofpersons committed to family-scale farming as themost efficient and sustainable form of producing thebest quality food, while protecting the environmentand strengthening rural community life.” 47Family farmers needed to become entrepreneurs inorder to survive. Agricultural markets were changing,and family farms needed to follow suit by identifyingnew customers/markets and developing products tomeet those customers’ needs. The Community FarmAlliance began working with its membership toidentify these new market opportunities. One keyopportunity was the city of Louisville, Ky., home toone million people—almost one-quarter of the state’stotal population.Community Farm Alliance members speak-out against tax incentives for outof-statecorporations and confined animal feeding operations. (Source:Community Farm Alliance).Thus, in 2002, longtime CFA staff member andfamily farmer Ivor Chodkowski applied for a sixmonthCFA fellowship, an internally-offered sixmonthleadership development opportunity.Chodkowski’s fellowship proposal focused onidentifying connections through conversations inLouisville and with farmers in adjacent ruralcommunities for joint economic opportunities. Thiseffort led him to the Portland neighborhood.Western Louisville’s 12 neighborhoods, whichinclude Portland, are disproportionately low-income,with 38 percent of the residents living in poverty, andhome to disproportionately high numbers of AfricanAmericans. One major equity issue that became clearto Chodkowski was that the residents of westernLouisville lack access to healthy and nutritious foods.For example, there are 105 grocery stores inLouisville, a ratio of one grocery for every 6,100Louisville residents. But the circumstances in these47www.communityfarmalliance.org/about.htm/.107Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities
12 western Louisville neighborhoods are verydifferent: there are four grocery stores total in theseneighborhoods, a ratio of one grocery for every19,431 residents. Thus, residents must either travellong distances for quality foods, or must purchasemore expensive food at one of 24 local conveniencestores. Furthermore, of these 24 stores, only six soldall five basic food groups and the only vegetablesoffered were potatoes and onions. With diets low inhealthy and nutritious foods, these 12 neighborhoodssee excessive rates of heart disease and cancer. In2002, there was not a single farmers’ market in anyof these 12 neighborhoods. As a result, Chodkowskibegan dialogues with Portland residents aboutstarting a farmers’ market in their neighborhood.In 2003, the Ford Foundation awarded a one-year$300,000 grant to the Community Farm Alliance inorder to plan the Portland Farmers’ Market and todevelop a long-term strategy around food securityand new markets for farm products. On June 21,2003, the Portland Farmers’ Market opened in theparking lot of a local printing business. Today, freshproduce, grown by local family farmers, is offered,such as fruits, vegetables, plants, as well as naturalfree-range eggs and meats. In keeping with the goalof providing Portland neighborhood residents withaccess to healthy and nutritious foods, the Market’svendors accept Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT)cards (food stamps). Additionally, the Market’svendors also accept coupons from the Rowan StreetCo-op, another CFA effort to make nutritious foodsavailable to seniors on fixed-incomes.Funder InterestThe Ford Foundation’s Active Public Space Initiativeattempts to forge common community institutionswithin emerging mixed-income and mixed-racecommunities by supporting four categories ofgrantees: neighborhood arts and cultureorganizations, community technology centers, openspace and recreation programs, and public markets.The Initiative wanted to allocate some of its fundingtoward economic development activities and wastrying to identify a public spaces-focused economicdevelopment effort. Through such an effort, theFoundation would strengthen the case that publicmarkets could become economic engines supportingadjacent community revitalization.Ultimately, social justice considerations convincedthe Ford Foundation to provide a grant to theCommunity Farm Alliance. According to MiguelGarcia, acting deputy director of the Communityand ResourceDevelopment Unitat the FordFoundation, CFAprovided anopportunity tocreate practical,mutually beneficiallinkages amongrural/largely whitecommunities andurban/largely black communities, and also offered astrong opportunity for collaborative learning for theproject’s participants and for the Foundation.Regional/Neighborhood Equity ImpactsThe Ford Foundation recognizes that any oneneighborhood (urban or rural) is linked with manyother neighborhoods as a part of a regional economicand social justice system. When these linkages arerecognized and supported, a neighborhood’s residentsand institutions start looking beyond theirneighborhood and make broader policy decisions.Mutual opportunities and partnerships can becreated, overcoming a rural versus urban mindsetwhich pits these communities against one another tocompete over finite resources.ResultsBuilding practical connectionsbetween rural and urbanconstituencies, which sooften entail connectingwhites with people of colorcommunities, is fundamentalto regional equity.According to Ford’s Garcia, several results emergedfrom the Community Farm Alliance and itsinvolvement in the Portland Farmers’ Market.Building practical connections between rural andurban constituencies, which so often entailconnecting whites with people of color communities,is fundamental to regional equity. Ford saw anopportunity to build such linkages with CFA and thePortland Farmers’ Market.Many inner-city communities lack access toaffordably priced fresh and healthy foods. Thus, thesecommunities must often resort to unhealthy andhigh-cost foods offered at fast food outlets andconvenience stores. These dietary habits contributeto high rates of diabetes, obesity, and other negativeREGIONAL OPPORTUNITYPart III: Section 3: Connecting to Regional Opportunity 108
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Stories of Philanthropic Leadership
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Signs of Promise:Stories of Philant
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Funders’ Network for Smart Growth
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(II. B.)(II. C.)Turning Neighborhoo
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PART I:IntroductionThe Purpose of t
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social justice issues as they relat
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PART II:Perspectives on Advancing R
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peer work, we can reestablish a sig
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Annie E. Casey FoundationBaltimore,
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neighborhoods into healthy ones—g
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Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation
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Section 1:Promoting Equitable Publi
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I. A. BUILDING POWER AND GIVINGVOIC
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policy advocates. In 2002, Milwauke
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in Los Angeles, Ford’s Anthony no
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I. B. PROMOTING COALITIONSTO ADVANC
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Yet the interpersonal dynamics of c
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guidelines. “Many of the member o
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Funder InterestThe EPA supported th
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I. D. DEMONSTRATING THESTRUGGLE FOR
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Richmond, Calif.The second regional
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through policy reform at the local
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I. E. BUILDING COALITIONTHROUGH KNO
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organizing project, the Connecticut
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and businesses are quantified in a
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I. G. REVITALIZING WHILEASSURING DI
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In the late 1990s, the city of Albu
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I. H. A TRAVEZ DE LA FRONTERA:LAND
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The International Community Foundat
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I. I. MOBILIZING ACTION FORREGIONAL
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To meet all of these objectives, th
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Page 69 and 70: Contact PeopleCarl AnthonyActing Di
Page 71 and 72: Section 2:Making All Neighborhoods
Page 73 and 74: II. A. REACHING BEYONDHOUSING TO IM
Page 75 and 76: A local resident receives the keys
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Page 79 and 80: example, adjacent to the EBDI area,
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Page 83 and 84: is using transit-oriented developme
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Page 89 and 90: II. E. COUNTERING THE PERFECTSTORM:
Page 91 and 92: funded community programs, includin
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Page 95 and 96: owned enterprises, totaling $8.5 mi
Page 97 and 98: LOAN GUARANTEESSection 3:Connecting
Page 99 and 100: III. A. MAKING HOUSING ANOPPORTUNIT
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Page 105 and 106: Funder InterestThe Straphangers Cam
Page 107 and 108: or increase poverty. Whether direct
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Page 113: director with LISC. No one set of s
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Page 119 and 120: increased their personal wealth by
Page 121 and 122: summary evaluation of MSDI found th
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Page 125 and 126: consistent body of work. The Counci
Page 127 and 128: 3) Issues Need to be ConnectedThe f
Page 129 and 130: PART V:Glossary of TermsThe terms d
Page 131 and 132: Regional and neighborhood equity. A
Page 133 and 134: Tijuana River Reserve, California:h
Page 135 and 136: Sargent Shriver National Center on
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