Minneapolis activist LaDonna Redmond to discuss food justice in Carleton convocation

LaDonna Redmond, a Minneapolis-based food activist, will deliver Carleton College’s weekly convocation address on Friday, May 17, from 10:50-11:50 a.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel. In her presentation, “I Don’t Live in a Food Desert and Neither Do You,” she will offer community-based solutions to confront underlying themes of social justice within the food movement.

Redmond was originally inspired to fight for a fairer food system after facing limited access to nutritious, organic food in her native Chicago community. Hoping to provide food free of pesticides and GMOs, she helped to lead a food movement that converted vacant city lots into urban farms and replaced junk food with salad bars in the Chicago Public School system. She also co-founded the Chicago Food Systems Collaborative, a partnership of four universities and three community-based organizations that explored the issues of food access and public health in low-income communities.

Redmond lives in Minneapolis and serves as founder and director of Campaign for Food Justice Now, which addresses inequalities within the food system, particularly surrounding issues of race, class and gender. As Redmond said in an interview, “Food justice is not just about nutrition. It’s about dignity, and it’s about being visible.”

Redmond was named a Responsibility Pioneer in 2009 by TIME Magazine and awarded the Green for All Fellowship in 2007. From 2003 to 2005, she served as a food and society fellow at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) and in 2011, she became a senior program associate in food and justice at the IATP.

This event is sponsored by Carleton College Convocations. For more information, including disability accommodations, call (507) 222-4308. The Skinner Memorial Chapel is located at First and College Streets in Northfield.