I serve as a co-chair of the board of directors of PFC Natural Grocery and Deli in Kalamazoo, Michigan, a co-op that identifies as being anti-racist. Dismantling systemic oppression is an ongoing journey. As the primary organizer of our board’s work together, I aim to make sure we are holding ourselves accountable for this work. I don’t want it to get lost or forgotten amidst all of our other roles and responsibilities.

Keeping anti-racism and anti-oppression top of mind for our board can be challenging. I’m constantly on the lookout for new ideas and resources, which can easily send me down a rabbit hole of research. I’m also attempting to be creative about how to incorporate key ideas, concepts, and resources into board meetings.

Of course, it’s valuable and necessary to spend larger chunks of time digging into this work by attending trainings, bringing in guest speakers, or reading a book together—but it’s not realistic to do that at every meeting. Squeezing all of our board work into the agenda is always a challenge, and when we’re short on time, equity work can often be the first to go.

I was excited to learn about the 21 Day Racial Equity Challenge that Food Solutions New England holds every April. When I first discovered it several years ago, I immediately signed up and encouraged my fellow board members to do so as well. Each day during the Challenge, they email out a prompt that is designed to deepen participants’ awareness and understanding of racism and inspire us to dismantle oppressive systems in our work. Along with each prompt, they include a variety of resources that may include articles, interactive graphics, videos and more.

I quickly realized that it was hard to keep up with the Challenge every single day, and it didn’t feel realistic to expect volunteer board members to fully engage in this for 21 days in a row. So I decided to space them out. I chose one prompt to send out along with the board meeting agenda each month, and I encouraged board members to read, watch, or interact with at least one resource before the meeting. As part of our check-in at the beginning of the meeting, I ask everyone to share a learning, new awareness, a question, or just a general comment about the resource they chose to engage with.  Everyone gets to engage at a level their capacity allows, and everyone participates in sharing something they learned or something they found interesting.

The prompts and resources are available year-round—allowing application within your own schedule and direction. You can find additional resources here.  I’m grateful for the work that Food Solutions New England invests in creating these resources, and appreciate having a selection of intentionally curated resources to incorporate in board work throughout the year.

Anatomy of the prompts

Every prompt has 4 parts:

1. Learn: explanation of the concept and key ideas

2. Reflect: questions to engage with the concept

3. Act: ideas on what we can do

4. Extra resources for going deeper

Here are the prompts for the first week of the 2023 Challenge:

DAY #1: WHAT IS WELLBEING AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FOR RACIAL EQUITY WORK IN FOOD SYSTEMS?  

DAY #2: WHAT IS BELONGING AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FOR RACIAL EQUITY WORK IN FOOD SYSTEMS?  

DAY #3: INDIGENOUS FOOD WAYS — SUPPRESSION TO OPPRESSION  

DAY #4: THE LEGACY OF SLAVERY AND SERVITUDE — INJUSTICE FOR FOOD, FARM AND FISHERIES WORKERS  

DAY #5: THE LEGACY OF SLAVERY AND SERVITUDE — ANTI-BLACK RACISM