Leaning toward the positive

Mexico 

Slow Food was featured in an El Sol de Puebla article focused on the organization’s “Decolonize Your Food in Mexico” contest. Slow Food works to prevent the disappearance of food cultures and traditions, which includes protecting and promoting the food systems of Indigenous peoples. In the Yucatán Peninsula and Chiapas, WKKF supports Slow Food’s work with Indigenous leaders to build capacity among women and youth in production and organization, with food sovereignty as a goal. 

Racial Equity

Building off its research for WKKF’s Business Case for Racial Equity report, grantee The Data Center recently published a report that found if Black incomes across Metro New Orleans were as high as those of their Black peers in Atlanta, Houston, Charlotte or Nashville, the size of New Orleans’ economy would increase between $3.3 billion and $5 billion annually. The report offers policy recommendations, such as raising the minimum wage, boosting capacity of community colleges and removing barriers to employment for people formerly incarcerated. The report is part of The Data Center’s Systemic Inequity Collection. 

Education

Kindergarten through sixth grade students of Battle Creek Public Schools, a WKKF grantee in Michigan, leave their classrooms to go to the Outdoor Education Center, a 175-acre camp that provides team-building and experiential learning opportunities in science and the environment. Students’ experiences vary from half a day to nearly a week at overnight camp and enhance the quality of lessons taught in the classroom by aligning to the district’s curricula.   

Health  

Black mothers are four-and-a-half times more likely to die in childbirth or during their pregnancies than White mothers. Detroit-based grantee Birth Detroit is working to change that by building the first birthing center run by Black women to serve Black women and birthing people. By the summer of 2024, the new birth center will provide a space for families to deliver babies, receive information in classes and get lactation and mental health support.  

Haiti  

As part of its WKKF-funded series on entrepreneurs with social impact, Haitian media outlet AyiboPost released a video on local chocolate company Ayitika. The film shows a lush and beautiful side of Haiti not often seen in the news. “Within Haiti itself lies an array of exceptional treasures – unique cacao varieties waiting to be unearthed,” Ayitika Founder Chesnel Jean told AyiboPost. “We stumbled upon cacao varieties that defy global norms.”