Community Food Work as Critical Practice: A Faith-Based Perspective through Narratives
Community food work is a framework for understanding the interconnections and complexities of food systems issues such as farm sustainability, food access and health equity, environmental resiliency, and social justice. An emerging yet overlooked perspective of community food work is the role of fa...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems
2017-09-01
|
| Series: | Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org/index.php/fsj/article/view/468 |
| _version_ | 1797722570469933056 |
|---|---|
| author | Rebecca Ligrani Kim Niewolny |
| author_facet | Rebecca Ligrani Kim Niewolny |
| author_sort | Rebecca Ligrani |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Community food work is a framework for understanding the interconnections and complexities of food systems issues such as farm sustainability, food access and health equity, environmental resiliency, and social justice. An emerging yet overlooked perspective of community food work is the role of faith-based organizations and practitioners. In this single case study of six faith-based practitioners focused on urban food security in Virginia, we use narrative inquiry to explore how they understand and perform their community food work from a faith-based and social justice context. Our methods included interviewing each practitioner to create stories of their everyday work, researcher-participant analysis of those stories, and a collective reflection session of the group’s narratives. The final narratives not only point toward specific social justice values and practices aimed at addressing race and class inequity in the food system as significant elements of their community food work, but also created new space for practitioner reflection and discovery of the way white privilege and class-based assumptions can be uncovered and challenged in the work itself. In this way, the research describes what community food work looks like through a faith-based lens, while also showing how storytelling and narratives can be used as an approach to create possibility for critical reflection about power and privilege in our everyday practice. We conclude with suggestions for using storytelling and narrative inquiry in similar food system contexts as a strategy for community change. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T09:49:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9afe22277bb040c482f4c81a3fcccf2e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2152-0801 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T09:49:16Z |
| publishDate | 2017-09-01 |
| publisher | Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development |
| spelling | doaj.art-9afe22277bb040c482f4c81a3fcccf2e2023-09-02T12:40:15ZengLyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food SystemsJournal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development2152-08012017-09-017410.5304/jafscd.2017.074.001468Community Food Work as Critical Practice: A Faith-Based Perspective through NarrativesRebecca Ligrani0Kim Niewolny1Virginia Polytechnic and State UniversityVirginia Polytechnic and State UniversityCommunity food work is a framework for understanding the interconnections and complexities of food systems issues such as farm sustainability, food access and health equity, environmental resiliency, and social justice. An emerging yet overlooked perspective of community food work is the role of faith-based organizations and practitioners. In this single case study of six faith-based practitioners focused on urban food security in Virginia, we use narrative inquiry to explore how they understand and perform their community food work from a faith-based and social justice context. Our methods included interviewing each practitioner to create stories of their everyday work, researcher-participant analysis of those stories, and a collective reflection session of the group’s narratives. The final narratives not only point toward specific social justice values and practices aimed at addressing race and class inequity in the food system as significant elements of their community food work, but also created new space for practitioner reflection and discovery of the way white privilege and class-based assumptions can be uncovered and challenged in the work itself. In this way, the research describes what community food work looks like through a faith-based lens, while also showing how storytelling and narratives can be used as an approach to create possibility for critical reflection about power and privilege in our everyday practice. We conclude with suggestions for using storytelling and narrative inquiry in similar food system contexts as a strategy for community change.https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org/index.php/fsj/article/view/468Community Food WorkCritical ConsciousnessFaith-Based OrganizationFood SecurityNarrative InquiryWhole Measures for Community Food Systems |
| spellingShingle | Rebecca Ligrani Kim Niewolny Community Food Work as Critical Practice: A Faith-Based Perspective through Narratives Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development Community Food Work Critical Consciousness Faith-Based Organization Food Security Narrative Inquiry Whole Measures for Community Food Systems |
| title | Community Food Work as Critical Practice: A Faith-Based Perspective through Narratives |
| title_full | Community Food Work as Critical Practice: A Faith-Based Perspective through Narratives |
| title_fullStr | Community Food Work as Critical Practice: A Faith-Based Perspective through Narratives |
| title_full_unstemmed | Community Food Work as Critical Practice: A Faith-Based Perspective through Narratives |
| title_short | Community Food Work as Critical Practice: A Faith-Based Perspective through Narratives |
| title_sort | community food work as critical practice a faith based perspective through narratives |
| topic | Community Food Work Critical Consciousness Faith-Based Organization Food Security Narrative Inquiry Whole Measures for Community Food Systems |
| url | https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org/index.php/fsj/article/view/468 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT rebeccaligrani communityfoodworkascriticalpracticeafaithbasedperspectivethroughnarratives AT kimniewolny communityfoodworkascriticalpracticeafaithbasedperspectivethroughnarratives |