Calling all food pantries, soup kitchens and passionate members of the emergency food and social justice movement: Closing the Hunger Gap is hosting their inspirational Cultivating Food Justice Conference for the second time and they are offering a number of scholarships to help you attend! The deadline is in three days – so now is your time to apply.
Closing the Hunger Gap Network works to broadly engage anyone who genuinely supports community empowerment efforts involving food in low-income communities. The conference will be held September 13 -16, 2015, in Portland, Oregon and will bring together emergency food providers, food justice activists and anti-hunger advocates in a vibrant and diverse discussion of community food security. WhyHunger’s Community Partnerships Manager Suzanne Babb, who will be presenting at the conference, explained that the conference offers workshops on best practices, tips and tricks from innovative community program models and opportunity to share ideas and build relationships with different groups to build on the vision for transforming the emergency food system.
Along with Suzanne, Alison Cohen, Senior Director of Programs and Jessica Powers, Director of the Nourish Network for the Right to Food, will be facilitating the pre-conference event ‘Working Together to Transform Emergency Food’ and the open space sessions for ‘Critical Questions in Food Banking.’ Babb says the Cultivating Food Justice Conference will address food security issues at both an organizational and at an individual level -“What we can do collectively to take action; but also in the smaller open sessions, what can people do in their own communities to take action and help to dismantle the charity model.”
Individuals impacted by food insecurity and small emergency food providers are encouraged to attend, as well as everyone who participated in the 2013 conference. Three scholarships support attendees with limited funds:
- Registration Scholarship – pays registration fees for one person
- Community Partners Scholarship – pays registration fees for people who work or volunteer together
- Work Trade Position – pays registration fees for conference volunteers
The application deadline for scholarships is June 26, 2015. Applicants will be notified of the status of their application by July 17, 2015. Apply now!
General registration must be made by August 17, 2015.
