The Black Church Food Security Network was formed out of a desire to address the structural sin of food apartheid using the tools and resources in our own communities while building on the wisdom and work of those who came before us. It is hard to fully understand the logic and impulse behind the work of BCFSN without wrestling with the ideas and legacies of the many ancestors whose shoulders we stand on. From Fannie Lou Hamer and Albert Cleage to Vernon Johns and Ella Baker, the systems of oppression BCFSN works to combat did not materialize overnight and the insights, strategies, and blueprint our foremothers and forefathers gleaned from generations of struggle continues to inform and inspire our programmatic trajectory today.
Beginning in the second week of Black History Month (February 2023), BCFSN Board member, Austen-Monet McClendon will facilitate a pilot political education program with BCFSN staff members as a culmination of her thesis work for her Africana Studies Master’s program at the University of Delaware and in an effort to systematize our approach to collective study around the topics that directly impact our revolutionary work. A few of the topics we will cover in this first iteration of the pilot program are: Black Miseducation, the Black Radical Tradition, Deconstructing Colonial Christianity, and Black Food & Land Justice Theory/History.
We look forward to integrating new forms of this program into other facets of our organization following this first pilot experience. Let’s water our minds as we water our gardens and learn and grow together!