Working to create a more just and resilient food system in Rhode Island is a central part of the job description for Rhode Island Food Policy Council members. Actively engaging in undoing systemic White supremacy in all of its manifestations is the aim of the RIFPC staff, as we go about our daily activities in support of the Council’s priorities. This isn’t easy work: we do it knowing that our efforts may never reach a final, satisfactory conclusion.

In 2021, we took a stance to confront obstacles to justice and equity in our food system. What does this mean in action? It means the Council and staff explicitly committed to taking on work to rid the food system and adjacent systems from embedded institutionalized racism, acknowledging that it affects people differently across race, ethnicity, class, gender, immigration status, sexual identity, and more. Our efforts are far from perfect. We hope that, moving into 2022 and beyond, we will be able to do more, collectively, to heal some of the harms inflicted on underserved people and communities in Rhode Island.