Our Current Work
Our initiatives put listening, learning, sharing, and connecting into practice. Working alongside farmers and community partners, we document their experiences, perspectives, and solutions—and share that knowledge in formats that support learning, advocacy, and action.
Amplifying Grassroots Voices in Food Justice
Recognizing the importance of these grassroots efforts and the need to bring their stories to the forefront, Food First’s Amplifying Grassroots Voices in Food Justice: Global Struggles and Local Strategies research study (herein referred to as Amplifying Grassroots Voices Research Study) was conceptualized to capture and amplify the voices of individuals across the food system—from sustainable agriculture farmers to food justice champions in the Global South, indigenous tribal nations and the United States.
Our research was guided by the central question: What do farmers need to transform our food system into one that is more equitable, just, and sustainable? This framing allowed us to explore how grassroots actors experience systemic barriers and the strategies they are using to advance food justice and sovereignty. The main goal of this research was to give farmers and food justice leaders a platform to share their experiences, insights, and strategies for addressing food justice and sovereignty in their communities.
Completed in 2025, this research initiative centers farmers’ experiences with the challenges shaping their livelihoods and local food systems. Their insights inform a growing collection of publications and resources that make this knowledge accessible to communities, advocates, educators, researchers, and policymakers.
Graphic Novel
Each year the global population increases about 1% and we grow enough food globally to feed everyone. So why are 2.3 billion people, or nearly 28% of the global population hungry and malnourished?
The Food First: Amplifying Grassroots Voices in Food Justice graphic novel reflects solutions gathered through our Amplifying Grassroots Voices Research Study. The Indigenous and minority food growers, along with food system advocates who participated in the research study demonstrate together, we can achieve a world without hunger!
Read online here (ADD LINK HERE) or purchase your very own copy in our bookstore.
Full Research Report (coming soon)
This 72-page report explains how the research was conducted, the questions explored, and the people who participated. It presents the findings and insights drawn from their experiences, highlighting shared challenges and locally rooted responses to advance food justice.
ArcGis Story Map (coming soon)
This interactive StoryMap connects the experiences of 36 farmers, food justice advocates, cooperative leaders, and community leaders across 15 countries and Hopitutskwa. Through their perspectives, explore the challenges they face and the locally rooted solutions they are building to advance food justice.
Food Sovereignty Digest
Monthly since April 2025. Program page lives here (what it is, why it exists, subscribe). The issue archive lives under Publications. One program page, one archive, cross-linked — not two competing hubs.
Black food and farm cooperatives
Black-led agrarian cooperatives are building community-owned grocery stores, farms, and food businesses in neighborhoods long denied fair access to food, land, and capital. In conversations with Food First, cooperative leaders emphasized that they already have spaces to gather and learn from one another. What they need is hands-on technical assistance with financial planning, legal structures and bylaws, and storytelling that engages their communities. These professional services are often beyond the budgets of small cooperatives, leaving important priorities unresolved.
Food First’s Black Agrarian Cooperatives Collaboration Project will connect participating cooperatives with mentors and technical advisors to address challenges identified by cooperative leaders themselves. Together, they will develop practical strategies that respond to each cooperative’s circumstances while documenting lessons that may be useful to cooperatives elsewhere.