In ENVIR 385, I was tasked with working on an action project that would represent a response to the course topic of politics and the global food system.
Our group decided that we wanted our action to center around the intersection between domestic food and agriculture and immigration. So, we chose a two prong approach to spread awareness about the issue by creating an informational flyer and volunteering with the University of Washington’s (UW) food pantry volunteer organization, Any Hungry Husky. Our flyer contained some facts and figures about food assistance and the migrant workers in the United States food system. It also had some local resources that people could reach out to for help. This flyer was to be handed out while we volunteered at the food pantry. We set up the distribution area and checked people in and out.
There was a lot to learn from this experience. So much organization had to happen just to design, edit, and provide content for the poster. I also want to take a second to applaud the staff at Any Hungry Husky who take the time, year round, to organize volunteers, reserve the facilities for the pantry’s distribution centers throughout the quarter, and solicit donations from around campus. Experiencing the difficulty of mobilization, even for a small group of five, was eye opening and I have garnered so much respect for the ability of many organizations and movements to mobilize large groups of people.
It was a big lesson on collective action, which was somewhat of a recurring theme throughout my learning in this class. I found myself constantly wanting to do something about things like the depletion of aquifers, desertification, land grabs, everything! But, I can only do so much. Even this blog post is just a drop in the ocean of issues. This is why coalition building is so important to mobilization and effective collective action. We must find ways to build or work with groups that have more power than the sum of their parts. If you would like to make a real, tangible difference in the world, I would encourage you, reader, to find organizations that align with your interests and find a way to work with them. After all, the global system functions on the interconnection of its individual parts and can be changed through those same avenues. So go out, get educated, and make a difference!
To learn more about the UW food pantry and how you can get involved, check out the link below:
https://www.washington.edu/anyhungryhusky/