New York, NY — The Counter newsroom in New York, NY has launched two year-long reporting fellowships to investigate the growing justice movements around Black farmers and farmers of color, and advance the narrative around equitable access to nutritious school food.
“Farmers of color are marginalized by an American agriculture system that borrows from their knowledge and traditions while excluding them from financial support. It’s a story as old as the system itself,” said Kate Cox, The Counter’s editor in chief.
“Meanwhile, the Covid-19 pandemic has recast schools as vital community hubs that are critical to keeping children and families well fed. Our projects will explore barriers to radical change in both systems—and document the movements toward equity that are already well underway.”
The Counter will support two fellows through 9-month multi-platform storytelling projects that will examine the changing face of USDA and its role in an inclusive future for BIPOC producers, and chronicle the evolution of school food programs—from coronavirus crisis to universally available.
The project is supported by a $350,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan.
Fellowship one will build off of The Counter’s investigative reporting, which unsheltered USDA’s history of data distortion to conceal decades of discrimination against Black farmers.
The second fellowship will highlight innovative best practices that are evolving to meet the demands of the school food landscape, post-pandemic and beyond, and explore the movements around universal school lunch.
“We believe that critical thinking is vital to how we address systemic inequities—access to land, capital, and nutritious food for children and families of color among them,” said Cox. “The stories we aim to produce through this project are necessary tools in sharpening the public’s understanding of those issues.”
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About The Counter
The Counter is the multi-award-winning home of a new kind of food journalism that uncovers the money, power, and politics behind our plates. In an economy driven by consumer demand, food literacy is leverage. We believe that an informed public, armed with unbiased context and analysis, can demand change and be empowered to make the choices that matter in their own lives. For more information, visit thecounter.org.
About the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal innovator and entrepreneur Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.
The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Michigan, and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special attention is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti. For more information, visit www.wkkf.org.
Zena Tsarfin
Audience Engagement Editor, The Counter
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