Donations spotlight: Support Slow Food USA as it works to fix our out-of-control food system

Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This July, Slow Food USA is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will support Slow Food USA in its work to fix our out-of-control food system.

 Read this important blog post about Slow Food USA’s critical work, then visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send funding to the group to assist its efforts — and the efforts of our other outstanding July grantees.

Our food system is in crisis. Gigantic food corporations now dominate where, once, small-scale farms served their communities. Instead of building relationships around food, we make transactions. Instead of making food choices based on flavor and origin, we prioritize convenience. Instead of treating the Earth like the source of all life, we pillage resources from our planet. Our food story in the U.S. is rooted in oppression, colonialism, racism and greed.

Given the enormous complexity of global food systems and the generations of targeted oppression they’re built on, there is no single solution to this crisis. But change can happen if we cultivate trusting relationships, align around shared values and work together for collective liberation.

This is the work of Slow Food: to achieve good, clean and fair food for all through coming together and mapping out a better food future. Throughout the world, Slow Food movements are responding to the unique challenges, traditions and opportunities in their regions and defining what it would take to achieve good, clean and fair food for all.

Slow Food is where anyone who eats can find belonging. Since its beginnings, Slow Food has grown into a global movement involving 1 million people in over 160 countries. Through our food choices and by taking direct action to shape our food future, we can collectively influence the way food is cultivated, produced and distributed, and make meaningful change as a result.

Help Slow Food grow

The Credo Mobile community can activate this new way of being by voting for Slow Food USA, the national association of 500,000 activists working tirelessly to effect change in foodways across the nation.

Slow Food USA strives to create a world where all people can eat food that is good for them, good for the people who grow it and good for the planet. Our vibrant network of 3,000 chefs, farmers, ranchers, fish harvesters, educators, eaters, activists, organizers and entrepreneurs are mobilized via 80 member-led chapters across the country. Chapters take the three pillars of Slow Food—biodiversity, education and advocacy—and bring them to life in ways that are relevant to their cities and regions.

Slow Food chapters uplift sustainable food producers and work to end hunger. Some chapters emphasize education and school garden programs while others focus on partnerships with community groups. For instance, at Slow Food Atlanta local volunteers have built lasting connections in the metro area through the Snail of Approval program, which recognizes food and beverage businesses that are pursuing and practicing Slow Food values. This is more than about making good food—it’s about making commitments to the environment, local communities, employees and purveyors, and our core values of anti-racism and anti-oppression.

Food insecurity is not only a regional issue but a national one. According to the USDA, more than 34 million people in the U.S. are food insecure. There are people in every state who struggle to afford food and continuously lack access to healthy options. One Slow Food USA chapter in Jackson, Wyoming, Slow Food in the Tetons, takes on food insecurity by lowering the barrier to farm-fresh food. This chapter created the Local Food Discount Program, which helps people in the community purchase farm and ranch food at affordable prices. Slow Food in the Tetons finds it encouraging to know that it has a connection with other Slow Food communities around the world who are working toward similar goals.

Support Plant a Seed

Our team at the national office works around the year to provide rich programming for our volunteer network. One example is the Plant a Seed program, which celebrates biodiversity on farms, gardens and schools. Through Plant a Seed, Slow Food USA invites growers to engage with food in our gardens and on our plates.

Every year, Plant a Seed puts together a cast of endangered and biodiverse seeds that tell a story and offers them in a kit. The varieties in each kit come from a unique grower and landscape, and tell a story of plants and people. The Plant a Seed campaign opens a door to understanding the importance of biodiversity and issues of food sovereignty through the cultivation and journey of seeds.

The 2024 kit features grains and roots. It invites supporters to ground themselves and connect the dots among soil health, human health and planetary health by exploring roots and grains. This year, 700 Plant a Seed kits arrived at school, community and home gardens to flourish.

Ultimately, we aim to bring awareness of the way that simple acts of growing culturally significant crops in our gardens can impact our climate and nutrition while we learn from the communities who are stewarding them.

To learn more about what we do and ways you can help, go to SlowFoodUSA.org.