Our Advocacy & Justice Program is still actively pursuing opportunities that connect us with community partners and strengthen food justice in Salt Lake County. Through initiatives like the Talanoa Listening Tour and involvement in the Westside Environmental Justice Committee, we are building relationships, gathering insights, and aligning our efforts with community needs. These ongoing engagements ensure that our work is and will be responsive, inclusive, and impactful in addressing issues of food security, accessibility, and environmental justice, and will allow us to plan how best to proceed in this important work.
Want to participate in the Talanoa Listening Tour?
Join us for a Community Listening Session on Nov 14th, 2024.
- Current member of the Westside Environmental Justice Committee: This committee is a group of Westside residents that live in Glendale, Rose Park, Poplar Grove and West Valley. They meet twice in a month in partnership with University Neighborhood Partnership, the Sustainability Department of the Mayor’s Office, and the University of Utah. Focusing on Westside communities, they are working to improve food security, land access, the workforce, climate sustainability and most importantly learning and growing together.
- Talanoa is an Oceania expression across ancestral territories meaning to have deep discussions with joy, listening and openness to learn and grow. This listening tour is a way for WCG to gain greater context around food justice work in Salt Lake County and ensure that we are aligned with our mission, values, and community’s needs. We have met with Mobile Moon Co-op, Urban Crossroads Center, Nuanua, National Tongan Society, Day Won, Native communities, Middle Eastern communities, Somali Communities of Salt Lake, food banks, elementary schools, local policy makers, and InterFaith circles. We are working to capture the Talanoa tour on camera and will share widely as we analyze the information we’re gathering throughout these conversations.
- We are using what we’ve learned this year to improve community members’ experience during events, programming, communications, and other interactions with WCG while strengthening our efforts to advocate on behalf of our community’s needs both within our own decision-making and in the broader food system within Salt Lake County.
Check back in early 2025 to see what’s coming next!