Skip to main content

Our Commitment to Equity and Justice

Equity Statement

Glynwood Equity Statement

 

As an organization we believe that Glynwood has a role to play in addressing racism and inequity in our country’s food system, and commit ourselves to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion and access in our organization, and in all of our work. ​​

 

The causes and consequences of systemic oppression harm land, people and communities and stand in the way of achieving Glynwood’s mission and advancing our core values: 

  • Environmental Resilience and Conservation - The lack of environmental justice means that the poor, people of color, and Indigenous peoples are more likely to experience the negative effects of pollution and climate change.
  • Human Health - Food apartheid causes disproportionate rates of disease and malnutrition in marginalized communities that is detrimental to human health.
  • Regional Prosperity - Persistent income inequality prevents the majority of Hudson Valley residents from building and benefitting from regional prosperity.
  • Social Equity - Inequitable power and resource distribution results in food insecurity that denies too many of our neighbors their right to food.
  • Cultural Vibrancy - One aspect of racism in the food system is the high valuation of European foodways and devaluation of others, which has diminished the cultural vibrancy and diversity of the local food movement. 

We recognize the interconnected effects of oppression on today’s food systems and commit to addressing its immediate harms while working to identify and dismantle its root causes.

 

Organizational commitments to change:

As an organization we expect our employees to orient themselves towards healing racism and oppression while pursuing equitable transformation. In action, this looks like:

  • Acknowledgment of unearned privileges and of harm caused, regardless of intent
  • Listening to critique and addressing it in a timely way
  • Showing up to support and learn from organizations and movements led by people from marginalized communities
  • Crediting leadership and expertise of people from marginalized communities
  • Sharing social, intellectual, and financial capital
  • Speaking up in spaces dominated by whiteness and wealth, where our organization is often represented, for the necessity of diversifying who is present and who is holding power

 

This statement is intended as a guide to action. If you feel our actions have not lived up to it, or you have suggestions for how we could do better, please help to hold us accountable by discussing it with any of our staff, giving us a call at 845-265-3338, or using this form to let us know.

Specific actions we have taken so far and commit ourselves to continuing:

Engage historically marginalized communities

  • Actively seek and support participation in programs from people who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and women
  • Participate in equity and justice focused working groups with peer organizations and networks where we are active (e.g. Anti-Racism in Farmer Training, CSA Innovation Network Equity and Access Working Group)
  • Seek feedback and create structures and processes that hold us accountable to the communities we serve [For example, we established an Accountability Council for our Food Sovereignty Fund made up of people who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and women, as the fund resources farmers who identify in those ways to grow and provide food for hunger relief organizations]
  • Resource and fairly compensate project partners as well as the participants in Glynwood’s programs
  • Uplift leadership of people who are BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and women or gender non-conforming in our communications and programming

Remove barriers to participation in Glynwood’s programming

  • Prioritize language justice:
    • Offer interpretation at educational and organizing events
    • Provide written materials and content in Spanish and languages other than English whenever possible
    • Organize events that center native speakers of languages other than English where those languages are the primary language of the event
  • Offer childcare at educational and organizing events
  • Offer travel reimbursement to project partners and participants
  • Offer stipends to facilitate participation that can be used at the participants’ discretion to cover their costs of travel, childcare, missed work hours, etc.
  • Offer facility use and Glynwood staffing for two no-cost scholarship retreats annually to mission aligned non-profit organizations with annual operating budgets of less than one million dollars

Promote equity in Glynwood’s operations

  • Continue to convene an Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access (IDEA) working group for staff (founded 2019) and a board DEI committee (founded 2021), which are spaces for us to reflect on how we are addressing these issues and continually seeking to dismantle all forms of oppression through specific individual and collective actions
  • Provide ongoing training for staff and board on issues of equity, access, diversity and inclusion, particularly as they relate to the food system
  • Evaluate Glynwood's hiring and HR policies on an ongoing basis to increase diversity and support all employees, including: pay scale transparency, creating a flexible work culture, valuing experience as well as credentials in hiring, building in professional development budgets, offering an inclusive family leave policy and high-quality health care, etc.
  • Require outside vendors to acknowledge and follow our Vendor Code of Conduct to ensure a safe space for all
  • Practice a rigorous policy of prior and informed consent for use of images or recordings of program participants and program partners in all Glynwood communications, including a requirement for Glynwood to request renewed consent for any content used more than one year after it was taken
  • Continue to identify individuals with food and farming interest/expertise who will further diversify our staff and board