NWS resident-led Feed The Change MKE campaign launches

By Ryeshia Farmer

Feed the Change MKE has launched! Feed the Change (FTC) MKE is Northwest Side-led food access campaign that demands a $1 million investment into a localized food system in Milwaukee and nutritional education programs for all. This campaign was born out of the people's visions for keeping each other safe by helping to meet our own basic needs for healthy and fresh food. It launched in May 2026 after nearly two years of developing Black Northwest Siders' capacities to lead it.

Through visioning sessions, where community members were invited to share what a thriving Northwest Side would be like and what community safety was to them, the African American Roundtable (AART) learned that Northwest Siders want a food system that gives them dignified and choiceful food access. This means having access to quality, healthy food, along with knowledge and opportunity about acquiring, growing, preserving, and preparing our own food.

Therefore, AART’s small team of member leaders from the far Northwest Side set a goal for FTC MKE to secure an additional $1 million investment in Milwaukee’s Healthy Food Establishment Fund. Our campaign demands that these funds be allocated to establishing locally owned and operated grocery stores, community gardens, farmers' markets and other food access points desired by residents. FTC MKE also demands nutritional education programs for food providers and their consumers.

We’ve seen that we can’t rely on big corporations. If we leave food access up to them, Black and brown people will be excluded from decisions and processes pertaining to people’s abilities to feed themselves and their families. That's why it's time for us to demand that city leadership takes responsibility and prioritizes building a new food system. This begins with building and activating everyday people's power to achieve their food access visions.

We can always begin building the systems and world we want by being the change we want to see, and there’s always examples of the world we want already happening in small communities. This is why, beginning in July, FTC MKE invites people to organize cultural events that show what a localized food system can do.

These community-led cultural events can be small or large-scale cultural events.  Over the summer, AART will partner with community organizations in a Seeds of Liberation tour.  During this intergenerational series, we will share knowledge that supports Milwaukeeans’ self-determination regarding their access to food and knowledge that supports culture, health, and well-being. Our first stop on the tour is a cultural celebration hosted by the Fondy Food Center on July 4 at 10 a.m. Another event is a free gardening workshop hosted by The Melanin Urban Gardener, a local farm in the heart of Milwaukee’s North Side. Keep an eye on AART’s events webpage for cultural events that you can attend.

AART challenges Milwaukeeans to connect with their loved ones, peers, colleagues, neighbors, young people, elders – or whomever in their networks – to identify and complete a project that increases their network’s food access. Projects can range from learning about and/or tending to the locally owned gardens and markets in their area, organizing food delivery for people with limited-to-no physical abilities or transportation, or even watching an educational documentary and posting the learnings on social media. Check out this guide for ideas and instructions on hosting your own cultural event.

For too long, major decisions impacting Milwaukee’s Northwest Side have been made without meaningful input from the people who live there. From large-scale developments to conversations tied to housing, detention facilities, and neighborhood redevelopment, Northwest Side residents deserve to help shape the future of their communities.

This work is about more than food. Food justice exists at the intersection of multiple movements and is connected to racial justice, economic justice, environmental justice, public health, housing, education, climate resilience, and community development. The conditions that shape food access are deeply connected to the conditions that shape people’s overall quality of life.

Feed the Change MKE recognizes that building healthy food systems also means investing in healthy neighborhoods, strong local economies, environmental sustainability, and community power. Join us to create communities where people can live, grow, and thrive with dignity.

Ryeshia Farmer serves as AART’s Community Programs Manager.