About Racial Affinity Spaces
The Food Systems Leadership Network (FSLN) is thrilled to announce the launch of our inaugural Racial Affinity Groups! This marks a significant milestone in our journey and commitments towards cultivating a more equitable and just food system. We invite you to be part of this endeavor.
Racial Affinity Groups offer a unique opportunity for individuals within the farming and food system to engage in deep, reflective conversations about the intersection of racial identity and systemic inequities. These groups serve as safe spaces for people of shared racial backgrounds to explore the impact of racism, white supremacy, and to embark on a path towards healing and liberation.
The farming and food system in the US is built upon a long history of racism, discrimination, and exploitation of marginalized communities. Racial Affinity Groups stand as a tool to counter these injustices, providing a platform for:
To read more about racial affinity groups (sometimes called racial caucusing) check out these resources:
FSLN and Racial Affinity Groups
The FSLN recognizes the role of Racial Affinity Groups in the fight against racism. Through partnerships and feedback from our members, the need for such spaces has been loudly voiced. In response, we are launching a 6-month Pilot Program for the FSLN Racial Affinity Groups. We aim to initiate up to 5 groups, focusing on creating impactful, supportive environments for all participants. Though FSLN will host these groups, the groups and conversations will be co-designed and co-created by the groups and facilitators themselves; in response to the needs, reflections, and dreams that emerge within each space.
Contact [email protected] with questions.
Racial Affinity Groups Registration
Black People in Academia
Purpose: This group is for African American (female and male) leaders in the intersectional space of academia, community leaders, nonprofit/university, community-based participatory research projects, etc. Our focus will be on community care and wellbeing, as well as working through specific challenges. Participants will gain a safe place and space, new relationships, reestablishing previous relationships, and building from their engagement. We hope to seed collaboration and connection within the group and across their networks, facilitate the exchange of knowledge, and support activities designed by and for network members, both as a way to introduce or coordinate memberships between all of these organizations.
Schedule: Fourth Wednesday of each month, March through June
Time: 1 hour meeting at – 1 pm PT/ 3 pm CT/ 4 pm ET
How to Join: Register Here
Facilitator: Erica Hall, she/her/hers. I currently serve as the Executive Director of the Florida Food Policy Council and the Sierra Club, Florida Chapter Executive Committee Vice Chair, Suncoast Sierra Club Executive Committee. My current role within the context of the racial affinity group will be the connection of African American affinity groups that are intersected as members of FSLN/INFAS/JAFSCD/NAFSN, and University extension programs dedicated to food studies/sovereignty/justice, etc. The intersection of the academic activist and the community activist who works with the academic community. Also, the opportunity to seed collaboration and connection across the network, facilitate the exchange of knowledge, and support activities designed by and for network members, both as a way to introduce INFAS and FSLN to each other’s work. I am an experienced facilitator who can work through challenges, exchange ideas, and develop relationships. As an Executive Committee member of INFAS/NAFSN/JAFSCD and other Affinity Groups including Sierra Club and other organizations where I have led or co-led, created curriculum and led discussions, I have extensive experience in racial equity practice. My experience demonstrates a deep commitment to advancing racial equity in all facets of my work and life; I have experience facilitating and navigating layered and direct conversations around race, racism, and equity.
BIPOC Men
Purpose: This space rests in deep listening, radical vulnerability, and laugh/play as the framework to lead African American and men of color through DEI in the workplace and in life.
Schedule: Fourth Monday of each month, March through June
Time: 1 hour meeting at – 11 am PT/ 1 pm CT/ 2 pm ET
How to Join: Register Here
Facilitator: This affinity group is facilitated by Chad Martin (he/him). Chad has experience in Train-the-Trainer facilitation with Global Leaders, Voices Choices Leadership Plenty, and The Virginia State Commission on Food Insecurity. He is a Virginia Natural Resources Institute Peaceful Negotiations Alumni, serves on the International Code Council DEI committee.
South Asian Diasporic Women & Gender Expansive
Purpose: This will be a heart-centered space to discuss and honor historical, past, present, and future challenges, traumas, and creative visions. I hope it’ll be a malleable space for cultural solidarity; understanding the nuances of our collective, yet individualized fight towards healing and liberatory justice (in relation to land, food, and beyond.)
This space will be guided by and centered on our personal ethnic lineages, how that is intertwined with the work we “do” (and embody!) today, what our hopes are for the future, and how we can be in service of healing traumas related to land displacement and dispossession.
Expect a space of self and collective exploration, sharing art and stories, honoring & understanding histories and weaving that into a present-future we want to see. We will work together to create a group that nourishes us, and that we nourish. We may gently push our own boundaries and rest in spaces of discomfort! Please trust that I will be there to guide and support us through this process, and I fully believe in your own capacity to do so as well.
Schedule: Offering 2 sessions a month. Join for either a 3rd Tuesday or 4th Wednesday meeting.
Time: 1 hour meeting at:
- Tuesdays – 9 am PT/ 11 am CT/ 12 pm ET
- Wednesdays – 2 pm PT/ 4 pm CT/ 5 pm ET
How to Join: Register Here
Facilitator: Samiha Hamdi (she/they) grew up mostly in the midwest as a first-generation, queer, Pakistani immigrant. She comes from a long line of strong and independent Pakistani women, and carries their impact with her. Within FSLN and beyond, she has facilitated QTBIPOC, heart-centered, racial and queer affinity groups that have ranged from focuses on land stewardship to culturally relevant book and art clubs. Samiha has worked internationally in various capacities within agroecology, land sovereignty, and food and farmer justice & advocacy since 2014. As someone that has been displaced of her own homelands and culture, yet has also benefitted immensely from systems of classism, she is sensitive to the ways that migration, land and cultural dispossession, and intersectional identities impact her work and the work of other land workers. As a racialized, migrant, differently-abled, and femme person, Samiha has first-hand experience of the ways that systems have intentionally ostracized and harmed historically oppressed peoples. She hopes to honor everyone’s experiences while creating room for generative disagreement and holding each other compassionately accountable through this racial affinity group.
Women and Gender Expansive Folks of Color
Purpose: This space is for women, femmes, and gender expansive folks of color.
This purpose of this affinity group is to build community and discuss sustainability amongst women, femmes, and gender expansive folks of color who work, play, study, and/or organize in food systems spaces. While women, femmes, and gender expansive folks in spaces are often expected (implicitly or explicitly) to serve in a caretaking role, this space will center strategies for collective care and explore pathways to prioritize ourselves and our individual wellbeing.
Schedule: Third Friday of each month, March through June
Time: 1 hour meeting at – 11 am PT/ 1 pm CT/ 2 pm ET
How to Join: Register Here
Facilitator: Olivia Peña (she/her) is a young leader with almost a decade of experience in food systems. Olivia’s experience spans academia, government, and non-profit sectors, with her commitment to racial equity and liberation as consistent motivations across these spaces. Her connection to food, agriculture, and land is steeped in the agrarian roots of her ancestors and family, with a special shout out to her mother for emphasizing early on in life the importance of connecting to the Earth. Olivia founded a racial affinity organization in Vermont that centers community members of color in food systems, from which she draws deep experience in centering and organizing with community members of color in predominantly white spaces. Olivia is based in New England, and is excited to facilitate space to build connection and community through the FSLN Racial Affinity Group.
Black Women
Purpose: This group is a collaborative process in understanding and gaining support for black women within the food systems network.
This space is for black women to rest, relax, and engage in relationship. We will hold specific conversations related to circumstances that need support and co-design the container of this group.
Schedule: Fourth Thursday of each month, March through June
Time: 1 hour meeting at – 11 am PT/ 1 pm CT/ 2 pm ET
How to Join: Register Here
Facilitators: This group is a collaborative process, utilizing a co-facilitator model. LaShauna and Joy have co-collaborated on food and race equity projects together. We are interested in understanding and gaining support for black women within the food systems network.
Joy Williams (she/her) has been working as a health and equity trainer since 2001, and has worked at the intersection of faith and food, understanding and changing the food systems in NC. As a co-facilitator, Joy offers a fresh perspective into co-creating healing spaces, while focusing on her expertise at the intersection of faith and trauma. She hopes to implement a methodology that allows for group collaboration, while also delving deeper into healing practices and language, and the ability for Black Women to genuinely connect.
LaShauna Austria (she/her) provides racial equity consulting with a focus on the food system, strategies for supporting the growth of farmers of color, organizational and leadership development, research, evaluation, feasibility studies, facilitation, and a range of services to individuals and organizations seeking to deepen and apply a racial equity analysis to their work and missions. She has also served as a team member focused on bringing racial equity issues to the table with Community Food Strategies, which works to support local food councils and networks for equitable policy change at the local, state, and national levels. LaShauna is passionate about rural life, preserving farmland and natural resources, and Southern foodways.