自2006年以来，美国已经开放了167多个食品合作社根据to the Food Co-op Initiative (FCI). Within this movement, Black-led co-ops are tackling food access and racial justice, which can help to fulfill a community’s needs while addressing systemic inequalities to restore power to the people.
社区成员自己拥有，管理和管理食品合作社。“他们是关于集体购买力，集体政治权，尤其是集体人民的权力。”说茉莉·拉特利夫（Jasmine Ratliff），国家黑粮食与司法联盟（NBFJA）的联合执行主任。
很大程度上是由于经济资源的历史性，系统的差异，黑人社区经常经历粮食主权的障碍。拉特利夫（Ratliff）将粮食主权描述为人们定义自己的食品和农业系统的权利，这本质上与种族不公正息息相关。
Racialized land disenfranchisement is one obstacle to participating in the food system. “We think back into the 1920s when there were nearly 1 million Black farmers in the United States, and now we’re less than one percent of farmers,” Ratliff says.
尽管黑人社区作为生产者在食品系统中的控制力有限，但面临不足食物的消费者感受到了连锁反应。美国进步中心的研究reports在过去的二十年中，黑人家庭经历粮食不安全的可能性是白人家庭的两倍。在2020年，黑人家庭中有21.7％和7.1％的白人家庭经历了不安全感。
主流食品系统内建立了土地和食品的种族不平等现象。Firebrand Cooperative的顾问和领导力教练达内尔·亚当斯（Darnell Adams）告诉食品坦克，他说：“导致无法获得食物的条件与更大的问题有关。”w88优德老虎机平台
这些密不可分的问题引起了俄亥俄州代顿的宝石城市市场。据宝石城市市场董事会主席阿玛哈·塞拉西（Amaha Sellassie）称，市场位于城市的西区，经历了广泛的红线和历史投资。代顿也是一个高度隔离的城市，非洲裔美国人占西区98％。
塞拉西（Sellassie）将宝石城市（Gem City Market）描述为人们的“生存机制”。他告诉食品坦克：“我们有40,000名居民，没有全方位服务的杂货店。”w88优德老虎机平台
开业一年半后，宝石城市现在为代顿的西侧提供了新鲜农产品的访问。合作社还创造了有意义的工作。塞拉西说：“这被视为以社区能力的社区发展战略。”
Black communities have experienced similar situations of disenfranchisement across the U.S. and, as in Dayton, co-ops have opened to address historical inequities in the food system.
In West Oakland, California, Jeneba Kilgore, Worker-Owner at Mandela Grocery Cooperative,describesextremely limited options for communities to purchase food. “A lot of the neighborhoods in West Oakland had 20 to 30 liquor stores and an assortment of fast-food restaurants but no full-size grocery stores,” Kilgore says. The Mandela Grocery Cooperative opened in 2009 and was the first grocery store on its street since the 1960s.
合作模型还提供了将代理机构返回社区成员的机会。亚当斯解释说，有时只将黑人视为食品系统中的消费者。她告诉食品坦克：“但是我们也不谈论黑人作为食物的生产者。”w88优德老虎机平台
布鲁克林中央食品库（CBFC）董事会副主席马克·温斯顿·格里菲斯（Mark Winston Griffith），说the co-op dismantles the idea that food is “something that needs to be given to us, but really, as an expression and an assertion of our own power, our own genius, our own creativity, our ability to do for ourselves—to build institutions that are going to sustain us and literally feed us,” he says.
通过合作模式，黑人成为所有者并扮演管理角色。塞拉西说：“建立合作社的过程使我们成为我们自己故事中的共同创造者或主角。”
亚当斯还认为，食品合作社为社区提供的框架中的价值。“我确实认为，之所以如此吸引人的原因在某些方面是非常灵活的。”例如，宝石城市通过提供多样性来响应社区不断变化的需求。从通用到品牌，合作社消费者可以选择最满足其财务需求的方法。
“The thing about the cooperative model is that it does allow you to address what your community needs.” Adams tells Food Tank.
杰西卡·戈登·尼姆哈德（Jessica Gordon Nemhard），合作社已经为美国的黑人社区服务了几代人details在她的书中集体勇气：非裔美国人合作经济思想与实践的历史。在奴隶制期间，黑人社区经常汇集经济资源来支付埋葬，疾病和治疗，甚至自由。内战之后，当南方农民联盟排除黑人农民时，建立了有色农民的国家联盟和合作联盟。
In the present day, 167 co-ops have opened across the U.S. since 2006, FCIreports。Among these are the Black-led co-ops, like Gem City Market, Mandela Grocery Cooperative, and the CBFC. “We’re kind of pioneering a new way,” Sellassie tells Food Tank. More are slated to open soon, including the Detroit People’s Food Co-op, Fertile Ground in Raleigh, and the SoLA Food Co-op in Los Angeles.
“人们一次又一次地回到这种模式，”亚当斯告诉《食品坦克》。w88优德老虎机平台
Adams anticipates momentum growing around the movement as more people are exposed to the possibilities of co-ops as alternative economic models. “I think because there are more Black co-ops organizing, there’s more evidence that Black people can organize food co-ops,” she says.
亚当斯告诉《食品坦克》，虽然黑人领导的合作社肯定会在其社区中产生影响，但“故事仍在更大的背景下讲”。w88优德老虎机平台
“Black co-ops are a way to build not only solidarity, but self-determination,” Sellassie tells Food Tank. “It’s building power.”
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照片由斯科特·沃恩（Scott Warman）提供
