This year’s theme — Mobilization
Community mobilization is essential for strengthening the movement to cultivate justice, fight climate change, and build resilience in our food system.
In its simplest form, mobilization is about people coming together to build their collective capacity and momentum around a social issue. It is a core strategy for movement building work, and it is how we build power, confront injustices, and create transformative change.
Five years ago, we launched San Diego County Food Vision 2030 with the understanding that it was time to reimagine and reconfigure our food system. Communities across our region came together knowing that there was no question that the current path was unsustainable and transformations needed to take root at the community level. Over the past several years, small-scale farmers, fishermen, food business owners, workers, organizers, policymakers, funders, and residents across San Diego County have come together to build a powerful movement that brings the goals and objectives of Food Vision 2030 to life. Guided by the leadership of frontline communities, we have celebrated significant achievements, milestones, and transformations across our region.
Drawing on the historic teach-in movement, this year's Annual Gathering is one of many efforts in our region to spark deeper community mobilization.
In the face of countless threats and injustices, we need grassroots, multisectoral, and intergenerational spaces to come together, learn, and connect around how the current political climate is impacting local communities and our movement to cultivate justice, fight climate change, and build resilience in the food system. Community leaders from across our region hold deep wisdom on resisting oppression, building mutual aid networks, organizing communities, mobilizing for change, and advancing real solutions that create power for frontline communities. By coming together to hear their stories, lessons, and strategies, we hope to raise our collective consciousness, build community power, and inspire collective action that will support greater and urgent community mobilization for a more just and resilient food system.
Video from KPBS
Sadly and within a matter of months, we have witnessed the fruits of our labor swiftly unraveling under the current administration. From immigration raids and violent assaults on human rights to sweeping funding freezes and the dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, many of us are living in fear as our livelihoods, communities, and vision for a more just world are under threat.
Although the current moment is steeped with despair, we are not without hope. Our movement is strong, and our efforts to come together around Food Vision 2030, nurture a sense of belonging for all, honor our kinship with one another and the earth, and seed cooperation in our region have prepared us for this moment.
Now more than ever, we must protect frontline communities, preserve the progress that we have collectively made over the years, and defend our vision for a more just and resilient food system. The current moment demands community mobilization and collective action. We need to build swift momentum and we need all of us. We are being called on to unapologetically live into our values, fiercely tend to our hearts, and actively organize for the future we want and deserve.
What is a teach-in?
A “teach-in” is an opportunity to learn together about an issue, create a venue for building strong connections with neighbors, and participate in a way to take action on the issues we care about. Teach-ins are meant to be practical, participatory, empowering, and action-oriented.
Teach-ins are part of a long, impactful organizing legacy. Previous teach-in movements in the U.S. shifted culture and advanced policies around anti-war, environmental justice, anti-gun violence, and racial justice activism.
