When you take a bite out of a sandwich or sip on a coffee, how often do you think about where that food comes from?
It’s a question that served as the genesis for lauren Ornelas (Ornelas does not capitalize her first name) when she founded the Food Empowerment Project.
“I founded the Food Empowerment Project in 2007 as a way to connect various injustices in the food industry and not only inform people about them but give them tools to help make a difference,” Ornelas said.
The company originally began its work in Santa Clara County before relocating to San Jose in 2021. Now based in SLO, the Latinx-led organization has made its 2023 mission to inform local residents about where their food comes from, why it comes from there, and whether it’s ethically sourced.
“We are new to SLO but overjoyed to be here,” Ornelas said with a laugh. “But we do feel our work is important, especially for a community that is focused on nature conservation and having a powerful impact on the climate crisis.”
The Food Empowerment Project has four core valuesāfocusing its education efforts on these topics, according to Ornelas, because they are the ones that often impact people without their ever realizing it.
The first is the concept of practicing veganism for the sake of animals.
“There is so much cruelty in the world today, and for those who have access to healthy foods, not consuming animals is a way to lessen that,” she said. “It is good for them, the planet, and your health.”
But sometimes being a vegan is difficult in certain cultures, and that is where the Food Empowerment Project offers a solution through their specialized recipe websites. According to Ornelas, these websites are designed to offer different cultures from around the world access to vegan recipes that make use of ethically sourced ingredients.
“As a proud Xicanx, it’s important to me to create [these websites] to show our foods without animal ingredients while still embracing our culture,” she said.
The Food Empowerment Project currently has websites for Mexican, Filipino, Laotian, and Chinese food, which all offer some form of translation to the respective languages to make the sites as accessible as possible.
The second core value is education and support regarding farmers and fieldworkers.
“In my family, we were raised to respect the [boycotts when workers were striking] and so including farm-working justice is an important part of our work,” Ornelas said. “Farmworkers feed everyone.”
She said that the Food Empowerment Project organizes a yearly school supply drive for children of farmworkers as well as advocates for legislation and regulatory changes that benefit farmworkers.
One of those items often subject to discriminatory or exploitative practices, according to Ornelas, is something that most people think of as a little treatāchocolate.
“We work to get people not to buy chocolate sources from areas where slavery and child labor are the most prevalent,” she said. “We maintain a list of chocolate companies that we do and do not recommend, and our supporters play a huge part in updating the list by sending us brands to look into.”
All of this is part of the fourth value that focuses on how the Food Empowerment Project can end what Ornelas describes as food apartheidāor the Caucasian dominance of access to healthier foods, which are often less accessible to people of color.
“Just as important as the rest is our work on lack of access to healthy foods in Black and brown communities,” she said. “We do physical surveying on the availability of fresh, canned, and frozen produce and other information [as well as] focus groups to help us understand the barriers each community faces and what they see as potential solutions.”
Ornelas said that locals interested in more information on the various programs the Food Empowerment Project is developing as well as how they can get involved in its causes can visit foodispower.org to stay in the know.
“We truly hope to connect with those in the community who are interested in any area of our work,” she said. “We know that the more we work together, the stronger we are to improve the current food system and make it more just for all beings.”
Fast fact
ā¢ The city of San Luis Obispo announced ARTober, which will serve as a month-long program to help promote arts in culture throughout the city. Participants can visit three or more arts and cultural experiences in SLO, document them, and head to the SLO Visitor Center to pick up a free ARTober tote bag and be entered to win a grand prize. Ī
Reach Staff Writer Adrian Vincent Rosas at arosas@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Autumn Arts Annual 2023.