Celebrating Black Excellence in Sustainability: Greening and Food Justice

Crystal Scott-Tunstall, a full-time Affiliate Professor in the Environmental and Sustainability Studies Program at Grand Valley State University, is involved in a variety of groups focused on environmental justice and food access. These groups include the City of Grand Rapids Urban Agriculture Committee, NAACP Environmental Justice Committee, Kent County Food and Nutrition Coalition, New City Neighbors Urban Farm Board of Directors, and Access of West Michigan Board of Directors.

Crystal’s vision for the future of sustainability is that it would include diversity and equity. Crystal believes that “It is important for People of Color to choose careers in the sustainability field. People of Color suffer the most from environmental issues. I believe that representation in sustainability is key to bringing awareness to the environmental injustice that plagues Black and Brown Communities.” She is proud of the awareness that has currently formed in Grand Rapids around environmental injustice. She is proud of her dedicated students, and the partnership she initiated between New City Neighbors Urban Farm and GVSU’s Shared Agriculture Project. Since she was eight years old, Crystal has continued on her journey of community engagement. Her journey includes a community garden in Chicago, named after her in her honor. 

Some of the barriers that Crystal has endured in her career in sustainability include both racism and sexism. Crystal notes, “As a woman of color, it is common to endure intersectional prejudices”. From her time as an undergraduate student in her university’s agricultural college, she was determined to better support all people through their own sustainability journeys. Crystal desires her legacy to include the building of a strong, relational bridge and initiative partnerships between the community and Grand Valley State University while providing learning opportunities for both parties. Beyond this, Crystal hopes to continue to support and mentor students who are preparing to become future sustainability practitioners. 

Lisa Oliver-King is the Executive Director with Our Kitchen Table (OKT), a nonprofit organization that focuses on food and environmental justice, which go hand-in-hand with sustainability. Lisa said, “As minerals, soil, seeds, foods, water, and even air became to be viewed as resources to be traded for profit by those in power, those without power increasingly are harmed by the results—and often exploited for labor. In a world where clean air, healthy soil, healthy food, and clean water are seen as human rights, sustainability will follow”.

Our Kitchen Table makes its impact by engaging in dialogue and planting seeds of activism that go beyond planting a garden or growing a tomato. She mentioned that OKT’s work is like an analogy that the late Wangari Matthai spoke to—that we are one snail with a drop of water on our back making our way to help extinguish the fire. Lisa further notes that “True sustainability looks like people of the world enjoying food sovereignty, clean water, and peace as the result of living in a global culture that values the earth, health, and economic equality”.

Lisa is proud to celebrate OKT’s Food Policy for Food Justice series and their ability to teach neighbors to grow their own food, share the message of food justice, and maintain a walkable neighborhood farmer’s market for ten years, which increases the access to healthy, local produce. She is also proud that she and the Our Kitchen Table team are helping to change the focus from food charity to addressing root causes of hunger and food insecurity and that by working alongside constituents, they have become not only teachers but colleagues and students. 

Systemic and institutional racism and funding structures have been barriers and challenges while working in the sustainability and environmental justice field, especially as a POC-led organization. Lisa mentioned that gaining trust has been challenging at times, but that building relationships is key to working collectively. Although there are many barriers to this work, Lisa believes that now is the time to build awareness that there has never been food justice in the United States, and to acknowledge that healthy food and clean water are basic human rights. She looks forward to the end of the disempowerment of People of Color and invites any sustainability professionals to share a meal with the OKT team to have an authentic conversation about how food justice intersects with racism, women’s rights, animal rights, workers’ rights, clean air and water, academic equity, and public health. 

Robert Cloy, Urban Forest Coordinator for Friends with Grand Rapids Parks (FGRP) and Community Gardener with Roosevelt Park Neighborhood Association, aims to increase Grand Rapid’s urban forest so that the community can experience the cultural, social, economic, public health, and environmental benefits of trees. Through the work that he does, planting trees has many benefits that can lead to a healthier, more connected and more sustainable world for everybody- intercepting stormwater, conserving energy for homes, removing air pollutants and reducing carbon dioxide. Robert highlights how sustainability is not a goal to strive towards but a measurement that needs to be interwoven throughout all our systems. Robert reflected on words that Daniel Schoonmaker, WMSBF Executive Director, had once told him, “sustainability is a mindset more than it is a practice. Getting everybody involved in sustainable actions is going to take a mindset shift, a shift that begins within ourselves first.”

Robert is proud of his ability to connect with his community in many different ways. Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, this past year, FGRP was able to work with volunteers to plant 800 trees in 2020. He is also excited to lead the pilot program for their first Youth Green Team, a workforce development program working with local 14-20 year olds to maintain newly planted trees. Throughout his work in the sustainability field, Robert highlights the difficulty in finding a full-time position in the environmental field, as well as the lack of diversity of BIPOC in sustainability as two barriers that he has encountered. A lack of diversity in the sustainability field leads to both stagnation and tunnel vision when it comes to solving problems in a holistic and inclusive way. He looks forward to seeing more of a greater push for diversity in the field and an exposure to green jobs in the BIPOC community. 

Robert often thinks about a quote by Jane Jacobs when he goes about his work, “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody”. This quote reflects a lack of BIPOC representation within the sustainability and environmental field especially when BIPOC communities are faced with disproportionate environmental burdens and oftentimes do not have a seat at the decision-making tables. Robert’s focus right now is to lead Grand Rapids through a paradigm shift and to help change the mindsets and priorities of community members and decision makers. He acknowledges that planting trees is a long-term investment that may take decades to grow and feel their full environmental benefits. Like sustainability, planting trees and nourishing relationships takes time, but we must continue to do the work today to look after the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations.

Alita Kelly is the Co-Founder, with Co-Founder Khara DeWit, of the South East Market and has been dreaming up the idea for the past five or six years. From a food perspective, South East Market focuses on offering locally-sourced items, such as meat that is sustainably grown, raised no more than 40 miles from the market, and sold at-cost to the customer, as a result of their “pay-it-forward” program. Alita reminds us that, “if you are just thinking about sustainability without accessibility then you have missed the mark” and that sustainability and equity must go hand in hand. Khara mentioned that educating customers on sustainability also has an impact. The South East Market labeling items from priority vendors (Black, Brown, Indigenous, non-binary, local, womxn-led) within the store to educate customers about where the product came from and how many miles were traveled to bring the product to them. 

Alita mentioned that her vision for the future of sustainability focuses on environmental justice and accessibility on a larger scale. She further explained that when we collectively talk about environmental justice, it is important to recognize that social justice is intertwined. Alita says, “If we’re not addressing how people who are coming from, or dealing with financial issues because of systemic oppression, they don’t really have the space to even consider environmental issues”. Moreover, she mentioned that addressing the root of other systemic issues and not solely focusing on environmental sustainability is important in doing this work.  

Among a lot of the great work that the Co-Founders are advancing, Alita is proud of the market’s produce subscriptions, which helps to eliminate waste and makes food more accessible. The South East Market aims to keep their food waste as low as possible through these subscriptions, keeping a basket of “take me as I am” produce at the door, and composting the rest with Wormies Vermicompost. As they continue to intentionally grow the market, they plan to scale at a nice pace where they can manage surplus food and, in the future, mobilize to have a kitchen and prepare foods as well. 

Alita reminded us of the truth that sustainability is not always convenient and that we must be intentional in our lifetimes, in an effort to preserve the future of humanity. The South East Market team takes that as a personal responsibility and also aims to share that collective responsibility mindset with their customers- that it is necessary for our future. They look forward to working with the Grand Rapids Climate Action group to hold businesses and governments accountable to addressing the climate crisis and educating other people in the process. Khara also mentioned that due to the size of the market and the vendors they work with, they have the opportunity to educate customers and normalize the fact that some produce might be out of season or unavailable sometimes to shift unrealistic consumer demand to a consciousness and awareness that advances sustainability in the process as well as a deeper level of care for their vendors.

Alita wants her legacy to be that she, alongside Khara, would like to make it easy for customers to act on what is right, and that they can participate in a collective responsibility to others and the planet. 

Jermale Eddie is the Co-Founder and Owner of Malamiah Juice Bar (founded in 2013) in Downtown Grand Rapids and the President and CEO of Malamazing Juice Co. (brand new wholesale cold-pressed juice company). He continues to grow in their businesses’ sustainability efforts in the greater sense of the word, specifically around their JUICE culture. JUICE stands for Joyful, Understanding, Intentional, Community and Excellence. They strive to create a joyful environment for employees, customers and vendors, meet people where they are especially in terms of health education and awareness and are intentional about their ingredients, community involvement, products (compostable), buying local and hiring and employment practices. Malamiah Juice Bar invests in community in a number of ways through donations, fundraisers and being present and strives for excellence in everything they do. Jermale mentioned, “I take on a “Triple Bottom Line” approach, but the people and the planet are most important for me over the profit…though we need that to continue the work”. 

Jermale noted that he wants to see more of a fusion between companies/organizations and the communities they reside in. He recognizes that people are the greatest assets within our communities and that sustainability is all about intentionality. From a young age, he remembers taking the three R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) seriously, oftentimes picking jars out of the trash to reuse or recycle, surprising his parents.  

Overall, he is proud of the relationship that Malamiah Juice Bar has with the New City Urban Farm, Blandford Nature Center, and Wormies Vermicompost. New City Urban Farms has grown all of the juice bar’s leafy greens for the past 3-4 years and their farm is only a little over two miles away. This means that the juice bar can provide fresh produce for their customers, as well as support a local farm that provides jobs for youth in the community. For the Malamiah Juice Bar, Jermale notes that costs have always been a barrier. Although it is cheaper to purchase styrofoam or other non-compostable products, Malamiah is committed to sustainability and uses compostable and recyclable products. 

Jermale would like his legacy to simply do his best to leave each season, place, relationship and job better than he found it- as a parent, husband, friend, mentor, entrepreneur, and business owner. He will continue to be an engaged community member and advocate of justice for all.