Housing & food insecurity: A systems perspective

Date & time: April 29, 2018, 2 PM to 5 PM

Location: Meadows Branch Library, 4800 Baseline Road, Boulder, CO 80303 (Please RSVP)

Cost: No fixed price. $10-$30 donations invited for supporting speakers’ organizations.

Zen teacher Bernie Glassman started taking people on homeless street retreats in 1991. He felt that there is something to be learnt from bearing witness to and experiencing homelessness, food insecurity and begging at a spiritual plane — something that can not be easily experienced at relatively comfortable retreat centers. Let’s hold that thought.

At another level, and as generally privileged citizens of Boulder, are we driven to help people without looking at structural economy-wide causes of homelessness and food insecurities? Are these systematic issues related to our climate and ecological crisis? Is it possible that there are community-wide approaches that could address homelessness, food insecurity, food waste as well as our climate crisis?

Michael Block from Boulder Shelter for the Homeless will address the root causes of homelessness and it impacts, common myths, the history of sheltering and its failed promise, establishing our moral values, and a way forward. Lindsey Loberg from Boulder Food Rescue will talk about food systems and their work to bring food redistribution in the city of Boulder. Together, they will look at commonalities and tensions between their approaches to addressing homelessness and food insecurity. We will start with meditation and there will be plenty of time for discussion after their presentations.

Speakers
Michael Block is the Chief Housing Officer at the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless. He has been a resident of Boulder for 20 years and had 20+ years experience in the private sector in international business/trade before he devoted himself to the issue of homelessness. For the past 11.5+ years, he has had program supervision experience in adult homeless services in Boulder that included outreach, emergency sheltering, Homeless Case Management Services, rental assistance programs, affordable Housing etc.

Lindsey Loberg is the Program Director for Boulder Food Rescue, a nonprofit focused on building a more just food system. Lindsey first became involved with food justice work as a high school teacher in their hometown of Milwaukee, WI, facilitating student projects exploring food systems, food access, food waste, and food sovereignty. The work of Boulder Food Rescue focuses on community-based, participatory systems of food redistribution and food access. They currently sit on Boulder’s Human Relations Commission.

This event is co-sponsored by Eon Zen Center.

Resources
— Relationship between Buddhist teachings, climate change & homelessness: Slides by Kritee
— Googledoc notes from Michael’s presentation
— Personal remarks by an activist on her experience of homelessness
— Boulder Food Rescue: Slides from Lindsey
— Food’s C footprint (short article)
— Understanding & reducing your food’s impact on climate change (long report)
— Resource for action alerts related to Food insecurity: Hunger free Colorado