Rooted in Power: Celebrating the USFSA Food Sovereignty Prize
I am thrilled to share a major milestone: our collective work at the Food Justice Program has been awarded the U.S. Food Sovereignty Alliance (USFSA) Food Sovereignty Prize!
This national recognition is a powerful validation of our community reclaiming its relationship with food, land, and culture.
Receiving this prize alongside October 16 is deeply meaningful. The USFSA created the Food Sovereignty Prize as an explicit alternative to the corporate-led World Food Prize. While the World Food Prize honors technological fixes and corporate agribusiness models that treat food as a commodity, our award honors grassroots power. It challenges top-down models by insisting that solutions must come from local communities, small farmers, and land stewards who build genuine self-determination.
On a personal level, serving as one Food Justice Program Coordinator has been one of the most rewarding journeys of my life. For a long time, it was just me trying to figure out all the ins and outs, navigating this field through constant experimentation, trial, and error. I’ve truly grown right alongside this program, learning as I went and helping nurture it into what it is today. Receiving this award is a profound reminder of how far we’ve come.
“Receiving the Food Sovereignty Prize on behalf of CATA is a true honor. The USFSA has allowed us to connect with national and international movements that inspire our work on the ground – where food workers stand at the very center of the struggle for food sovereignty and justice. Our Food Justice Program is about far more than just growing food. With our community garden at its core, we’ve built weekly markets, a youth internship, and local New Jersey partnerships that uplift farm workers and food system workers alike. By cultivating culturally relevant crops, preserving traditional knowledge, and empowering the next generation, we build a food system rooted in dignity, justice, and community”.
Receiving this award serves as a profound reminder that our local effort is directly linked to an international movement resisting corporate control in favor of community sovereignty.
This prize doesn’t belong to one person; it belongs to every volunteer, farmworkers/food worker, advocate, and neighbor who has poured love into this movement.
It also fuels our journey forward. We will keep building local power and honoring traditional foodways.
Watch the Ceremony / Learn More: 18th Annual Food Sovereignty Prize Awarded – US Food Sovereignty Alliance
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