By Elizabeth Tobey
HEAL Meals Alliance is a multi-sector, multi-racial coalition devoted to reworking meals and farm techniques by way of coverage, training, and grassroots help. With practically 60 member organizations, HEAL is targeted on defending farm and meals system staff, advocating for local weather justice, and supporting BIPOC-led organizations. HEAL stands for Well being, Surroundings, Agriculture, Labor, and the Alliance was born out of the understanding that no single particular person, group, or sector can rework techniques in isolation.
Nichelle Harriott is the Coverage Director at HEAL, and likewise serves on OFRF’s board of administrators. She lately gave a presentation to OFRF employees and board members about HEAL’s work, as a part of a collection of “Lunch and Study” occasions that OFRF is coordinating to construct stronger connections between our group and others working within the meals and agriculture sectors. Listed below are our key takeaways from assembly with Nichelle and studying concerning the highly effective work that HEAL is doing.
How It Began
HEAL started round 2016, when 4 organizations got here collectively at a convention and began speaking concerning the intersection of well being, surroundings, agriculture, and labor. These 4 organizations have been Actual Meals Technology, Nationwide Black Meals and Justice Alliance, Union of Involved Scientists, and Meals Chain Staff Alliance. From that preliminary dialog, HEAL was born and has since grown to over 60 member organizations, consisting largely of native teams with just a few regional and nationwide organizations concerned as effectively.
How It’s Going
As Nichelle put it, “HEAL believes that everybody has the precise to have entry to meals which are nutritionally and culturally applicable, free from exploitation, and grown in concord with the remainder of the pure world.”
The Alliance makes use of 5 core strategies for conducting their work to attain this imaginative and prescient:
Connecting and uniting teams
As an alliance of member organizations, HEAL focuses on connecting teams to leverage and help one another in creating efficient change. All members play a guiding position by figuring out and uplifting precedence points for HEAL to advocate round. Core Members are BIPOC-led or BIPOC-serving, whereas Connecting Members embrace others who align with HEAL’s mission. The 4 founding organizations proceed to play a key position inside HEAL, as a part of the membership and serving on the steering committee.
HEAL helps members by way of regranting applications. Earlier this yr, they have been in a position to regrant $400K to 26 members going through finances gaps as a result of federal funding freeze in early 2025. Yearly, they supply roughly $50K in speedy response funds to help smaller, less-resourced members.
Political training and evaluation
The Faculty of Political Management staff in San Diego. Picture credit score HEAL Meals Alliance.
HEAL facilitates the Faculty of Political Management (SOPL), a three-month program to equip younger leaders with coverage and advocacy abilities. Made up of a mixture of digital and in-person periods, this program contains lobbying expertise in Washington, D.C. As of our dialog in mid-2025, SOPL has graduated over 10 cohorts of younger political leaders and advocates with the coaching wanted to successfully advocate for a future they consider in.
Of their coverage work, HEAL prioritizes employee protections, local weather justice, company consolidation, and help for BIPOC producers. They give attention to federal-level coverage, particularly the Farm Invoice, and held their first Congressional briefing on staff and the Farm Invoice in 2023.
Advancing a shared narrative
The communications staff at HEAL Meals Alliance is intentional about how they inform their tales, guaranteeing that messaging round precedence points aligns with a Race Class Narrative (RCN) framework. This framework prioritizes telling tales that unify slightly than divide individuals throughout class and race, and construct energy to tackle company and political entities that traditionally and at present search to divide and exploit us. Their “Rooted, Prepared, & Resilient: Uplifting a BIPOC-led Imaginative and prescient for Disaster-Proof Meals Methods” information, developed in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, is a superb instance of this strategic and purposeful work.
Connecting and nurturing present and rising campaigns
HEAL is at present engaged on a story of abundance messaging information for members, to problem the false narrative that there’s not sufficient to go round. “Shortage is manufactured by these in energy,” Nichelle defined. HEAL is working to flip that script, exhibiting what’s doable after we transfer from a mindset of shortage to a one in every of abundance. They’re selling the message that we will and may select insurance policies that mirror what is feasible after we spend money on individuals, not companies.
Making certain underserved communities have the sources they should result in grassroots change
Nichelle mentioned the influence that discrimination and exploitation have on Black and brown communities. Addressing it is a foundational and ongoing precedence space for HEAL’s work. As an example, they’ve labored extensively with Senator Booker (D–NJ)’s workplace on campaigns to enhance working circumstances of meatpacking staff. They’re additionally engaged in advocating for warmth stress protections and immigration reform for farmworkers. HEAL is exclusive in that they give attention to meals and farm staff throughout provide chains, together with in farm fields, processing services, and eating places. Their aim is to assist form coverage that “safeguards those who develop, harvest, and serve the meals that we depend on,” as Nichelle mentioned.
Collaboration Alternatives
Recognizing the energy in collaborative efforts, Nichelle pointed to a number of areas the place HEAL is open to connecting with different meals and agriculture organizations. She famous the messaging work they’re doing round abundance, and invited organizations akin to OFRF to include that framework into their communications. One other space she famous as necessary to proceed to focus on is the connection between local weather change and agricultural communities.
Subsequent Steps
To be taught extra concerning the work that HEAL Meals Alliance is doing, go to their web site at https://healfoodalliance.org/. Should you’re prepared to leap in and get entangled, head straight for his or her Take Motion web page, the place you’ll be able to Be a part of the Alliance, Join, Discover, or Assist. You possibly can scroll to the underside to enroll in their e-newsletter and observe them on social media to remain within the loop.
