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Celebrate Latinx Heritage Month by Going Vegan

by Food Empowerment Project
By enjoying some vegan albondigas this month, you’ll do more for the Latinx community than you may realize. Food Empowerment Project is encouraging everyone to celebrate Latinx Heritage Month by going vegan with their help.
CELEBRATE LATINX HERITAGE MONTH BY GOING VEGAN

Food Empowerment Project shares tips on how to celebrate while eating your ethics.

COTATI, Calif., 9/15 — By enjoying some vegan albondigas (https://veganmexicanfood.com/recipes/albondigas) this month, you’ll do more for the Latinx community than you may realize. Food Empowerment Project is encouraging everyone to celebrate Latinx Heritage Month by going vegan with their help.

Food Empowerment Project (https://foodispower.org/) is a Xicanx-founded organization that encourages healthy food choices that reflect a more compassionate society by spotlighting the abuse of animals on farms, the depletion of natural resources, unfair working conditions for produce workers, and the unavailability of healthy foods in Black and Brown communities and in low-income areas.

During the pandemic and recent wildfires, the organization took charge in providing essential supplies for some of the most overlooked essential workers: farm workers. By providing vegan foods, and protective masks to the farm workers who help feed us all, their support helps to right some of the injustices ingrained in our food systems.

Food Empowerment Project’s website (http://www.foodispower.org) — available in both Spanish and English — offers culturally relevant resources to help people make more ethical food choices and fight for access to healthy foods and justice for farm workers. Free resources include a vegan Mexican recipe site (https://veganmexicanfood.com/), a chocolate list (https://foodispower.org/chocolate/) that provides recommendations on slavery-free ethical chocolate companies, and ideas and recipes for eating on a budget (https://foodispower.org/eating-on-a-budget/). The organization is also hosting the upcoming virtual Vallejo Healthy Food Fest (https://foodispower.org/event/vallejo-healthy-food-fest-2020/), which is a free online celebration that will educate attendees on cooking and accessing healthy foods in the community of Vallejo, CA. Performances will include Vallejo’s own Quetzalli Ballet Folklorico and a special cooking demo by Chef Evangelina in celebration of Mexican independence (celebrated on September 16 each year).

Founder of the organization, lauren Ornelas says, “As a proud Xicanx, I could not ignore the connections I saw between our food choices and its impact on my people. Our food choices are powerful as they not only affect our own bodies but the lives of people, non-human animals and the environment. Food Empowerment Project works to share the information and tools to help people change the world. Our work is to not only help Black and Brown communities be healthier by being able to access healthy foods but to also improve working conditions for people who put food on our plates so they and their families can thrive.”

For more information, check out lauren Ornelas’ TEDx Talk, “The Power of Our Food Choices,” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blfVA0a-CBc). A complete guide of recipes, resources, and advocacy can be found at foodispower.org.

About Food Empowerment Project
Food Empowerment Project (http://www.foodispower.org), founded in 2007, seeks to create a more just and sustainable world by recognizing the power of one’s food choices. In all of its work, Food Empowerment Project seeks specifically to empower those with the fewest resources. Its advocacy areas include fair conditions for farm workers, the availability of healthy foods in communities of color and low-income areas, the protection of animals on farms, and conservation of natural resources. A vegan food justice organization, Food Empowerment Project also works to expose negligent corporations, such as those that push unhealthy foods into low-income areas, those that perpetuate food deserts, and those that sell chocolate derived from the worst forms of child labor. Food Empowerment Project is a registered non-profit 501(c)(3).

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If you would like more information about Food Empowerment Project or would like to schedule an interview with lauren Ornelas, please contact Erika Galera at 707-779-8004 or email erika [at] foodispower.org.
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