USAN is an action-based transformational network of community farmers and partner organizations in the food system. The network holds a safe space for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) coalition building and redefining power in the Chicago region.
We center collective thriving; just like nut trees only fruit when all trees in the grove have an abundance of sugar. We convene folks from the divested groves of Chicago to share “sugar,” seed empathy, interconnectedness and sustainability, one community, one sector can not thrive alone, in the long term.
Photo credits: Alexy Irving of Photography by Alexy
USAN works to address social justice through a focus on food justice. We believe food serves as a symbolic and historic tie binding people across cultures while reflecting injustices such as access to land, diet related disease, low paying jobs in the food sector, access to affordable healthy food, contaminated soil, among many other issues. Food is a focus for celebrating diverse cultures while providing direct projects and policies in which communities can collaborate.
According to the Greater Chicago Food Depository, food insecurity rates are highest in Black and Brown communities on Chicago’s south side at 34%-57%, compared to 1%-5% in predominantly white communities on the northside. Food insecurity negatively impacts health and local economies. Chicago’s segregated neighborhoods have been historically defined by redlining and racial restrictive covenants, a federally enforced practice that prohibited Black residents from acquiring property in predominantly white areas, supported by banking and insurance companies. USAN recognizes the history and structural conditions created by systemic racism and economic disinvestment in Chicago. These inequities are manifested through concentrated power and dynamics of the current white-dominated food system. USAN works to build local political power by providing leadership training and capacity building. A diverse food system is a just, healthy, and inclusive food system.
Photo credits: Alexy Irving of Photography by Alexy
Food Justice, Sovereignty, and Collective Thriving
On the ground Black and Brown solidarity
Capacity building that centers long term sustainability for USAN members
Development and advocacy of effective food-focused and health policies by and for uplifting divested BIPOC communities
USAN members meet monthly to mobilize Black and Brown solidarity to catalyze food justice and sovereignty. Meetings are reserved for BIPOC members only.
To join one of our meetings, first join our google group. Meeting instructions are posted in the group for members to join.
Follow us on instagram @USANChicago
