Common Words & Acryonms

Accessibility: The practice of making information, activities, and/or environments usable and meaningful for as many people as possible, with special consideration for language barriers, physical or neurological disabilities, education and background, and geographic factors. For Provecho Collective, this is part of our commitment to equity.

Activism: Use of action that’s disruptive and noticeable in nature as well as in opposition of working within systems and alongside their decision-makers to achieve a political or social change; examples can include a rally, protest, strike, boycott, or community organizing.

• At Provecho Collective, we partner with and support activist organizations in and related to Colorado’s food justice movement but do not lead activist efforts.

Advocacy: Taking action to help change policies, laws, or systems, often by working with political and institutional decision-makers like elected officials and government agencies; examples include letter-writing campaigns to Members of Congress, phone calls, emails, or meetings with elected officials, and presenting community-led policy ideas to state lawmakers. 

• At Provecho Collective, we focus on advocacy to support policy changes that reflect community priorities and promote food justice.

Capacity building: Developing and/or strengthening the skills, knowledge, process, and resources of organizations and individuals to improve their ability to achieve specific goals identified by communities, and to help them adapt and thrive through change. For Provecho Collective, this can look like technical assistance, webinars and trainings, toolkits and guides, one-on-one thought partnership, leadership academies, data tools, and more.

Collaborator (instead of stakeholder): A person, group, or organization with a vested interest or stake in the decision-making and activities of an organization or project; this includes community members with no direct affiliations to any groups or organizations.

• Given the colonial roots of “stakeholder”, here are options to use instead of that word (or collaborators as suggested above): Partners, participants, interested or relevant parties, those affected, those who care or are invested in, or engaging with all voices.

Committee: A group of individuals and organizational representatives who care about a particular topic or area of work that advise and decide upon goals and actions together; for Provecho Collective, our committees help spread power or influence more evenly among different areas – like policy, data and evaluation, and funding – that otherwise would not be accessible for most community members; they’re facilitated by a staff liaison and open to all who are interested in participating unless otherwise noted.

Community: People who consume food (those at the end of the food system chain) are the most impacted by inequities due to policies and procedures, and have historically been left out of decision-making processes. 

Note: Provecho Collective may also use “community” when referring to our network of partners and collaborators (see below for definition), which includes community advocates, grassroots organizations, advocacy groups, local producers, state agencies, public health and nutrition experts, and more who all convene around shared priorities and solutions.

Community organizing: Mobilizing individuals to address social, economic, and political issues by building relationships and working collectively to increase their influence in decision-making processes and create positive change, such as by gaining or protecting rights; centers the leadership of community members to build community power, typically of underrepresented groups, through action for social justice (activism).

Culturally relevant: Meeting the diverse tastes and needs of individuals and families based on their cultural identity and/or spirituality; holding space for food preferences and the cultural practices around the preparation and consumption of food; you also may hear it described as culturally appropriate, responsible, meaningful, or preferred.

Equity: Recognizing that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and adjust those imbalances (different from equality, meaning everyone gets the same resources and opportunities, regardless of their individual needs); an ongoing process, with inclusion as a key component, that requires us to identify and overcome intentional and unintentional barriers arising from bias or systemic structures.

• This is a core value of Provech Collective.

Fiscal sponsor: A 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provides fiduciary oversight, financial management, and other administrative services to help build the capacity of new or early-stage not-for-profit groups, organizations, and projects.

Food access: A community’s and individual’s ability to have enough resources to obtain and/or produce food on an uninterrupted and consistent basis for a nourishing diet; this includes travel time to shopping, availability of healthy foods, and food prices.

Food apartheid: Systemic inequities of food access due to intentional historical and ongoing discriminatory practices and policies, particularly impacting low-income communities and communities of color. It shows up when some neighborhoods have lots of grocery stores with fresh fruits and vegetables, while others — often low-income or communities of color — only have convenience stores or fast food and have to travel farther or pay more just to get healthy food.

Food bank: A nonprofit organization that acquires, safely stores, and then redistributes millions of pounds of food annually that are made available or delivered to local food agencies and organizations, (like food pantries); in Colorado, the term “food bank” generally refers to a member of the national Feeding America network.

Food choice: A person’s ability to select and consume food as they choose, including what, how, when, where, and with whom they eat.

Food desert: Areas with limited access to affordable and nutritious food; different from food swamps, which are areas with an abundance of unhealthy food options like fast food and convenience stores, and food mirages, areas where healthy food exists but not accessible to all due to affordability or other barriers.

Food hub: An organization or business that actively manages the aggregation, distribution, and marketing of food products from local and regional producers; they connect small- and mid-sized farmers with larger markets, including grocery stores, restaurants, schools, and other institutions, as well as individual consumers. Examples include East Denver Food Hub and Valley Roots Food Hub.

Food insecurity: Not having the ability to access enough safe and nourishing food at all times to live a meaningful, active, and healthy life, which can cause stress and anxiety related to worrying about food; this commonly includes both physical and economic access to food that meets people’s dietary needs as well as their food preferences. (This is an official term from the USDA but not considered the most accessible to use, including translation in Spanish.)

• Other ways to describe it: When individuals or families can’t access the food they need to live their fullest lives; when someone doesn’t know where their next meal will come from.

Food is/as medicine: Concept that food and nutrition play a critical role in preventing and managing disease, and that access to nutrient-dense food is essential for overall health and well-being; approaches utilize food and nutrition interventions, often integrated with healthcare and community services, to improve health outcomes; an example is medically tailored meals, which are specifically designed to meet the nutritional needs of individuals with specific health conditions (e.g., diabetes). (See below for social determinants of health.)

Food justice: Holistic and structural view of the food system(s) that views healthy, nutritious, affordable, and culturally relevant foods as a human right while addressing the structural barriers that limit the fulfillment of that right; it’s a movement focused on a creating a fair and inclusive food system where everyone can thrive, and no one is left behind, that goes beyond just about having enough food but also ensuring that the food respects and reflects the diverse needs and traditions of communities. 

• Plain language example: At Provecho Collective, we believe everyone, regardless of their background, has the right to access and enjoy healthy, affordable, and culturally meaningful food.

Food pantry: A local, individual site like a nonprofit, grassroots, or faith-based organization that buys food or receives donations of foods that are then directly distributed to those in its community (per CRS 26-2-139). Some that fit this definition may use “food bank” in their name, utilize a mobile unit, and/or distribute food boxes, but their reach is usually more limited and focused on a municipality or neighborhood.

Food procurement: How and from whom food is purchased by an organization and institution; when working towards food justice and sovereignty, there’s a focus on harnessing purchasing power to create more equitable food systems that focus on local food procurement.

Food sovereignty: A movement for people to
reclaim their power in the food system by rebuilding the relationships between people and the land, and between food providers and those
who
eat; it means having a food system in which the people have the ability and opportunity to produce, distribute, and consume food – and also control or influence the mechanisms and policies of food production and distribution. In this, communities reap the profit from growing their own food and have the autonomy to distribute capital returns based on their own will rather than relying upon other third-party entities like for-profit corporations outside of the community. (Learn more about food sovereignty from the U.S. Food Sovereignty Alliance.)

• Plain language example: Communities should have the power to control choices about what they eat, where it comes from, how it’s grown, and when it’s available.

Food system(s): Complex networks that include all the inputs and outputs associated with agricultural and food production and consumption; the USDA describes local and regional food systems as “place-specific clusters of agricultural producers of all kinds (farmers, ranchers, and fishers), along with consumers and institutions, engaged in producing, processing, distributing, and selling foods.” 

Grassroots organization: A group that mobilizes people, often at the local level, to advocate for social or political change, often with no or few staff and small annual budgets ($500k or less); may be fiscally sponsored by a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. They authentically represent their community, composed of local people focused on local issues, taking a bottom-up approach that allows them to define their own goals and how to achieve them.

Hunger: An uncomfortable or painful physical sensation caused by insufficient consumption of dietary energy; chronic hunger is when a person does not consume a sufficient amount of calories, known as dietary energy, on a regular basis to lead an active and healthy life (per the Food & Agricultural Organization of the United Nations).

Inclusion: Ensuring there are conditions where we can connect, respect, and value all people, such as by providing welcoming spaces that allow all to participate as they wish so long as it honors diversity and rejects assimilation and suppression of differences. (Read more about the Provecho Collective’s commitment to equity, which covers inclusion.) 

Intersectionality: A way of understanding how individuals and communities are affected by systems of power in different ways and why we need to consider overlapping factors – from race, income, disabilities, immigration status, healthcare access, and more – to address inequities and barriers so we can move toward food justice for all.

Land acknowledgment: A formal statement that respects Indigenous peoples as original stewards of the land, as well as recognizes the purposeful atrocities committed against them and the enduring relationship that exists between Indigenous peoples and their traditional territories. (Here’s access to Provecho Collective’s land acknowledgment.)

Language justice: A practice to create space for participants to speak in the language they feel most comfortable with – the language of their heart – such as Spanish and American Sign Language. This commonly includes interpretation during meetings and events, in addition to translation of print and digital communication. It’s a key way to ensure welcoming and inclusive spaces, build community power, and engage directly with those who have historically been left out and oppressed like non-English speakers. (Provecho Collective works with Community Language Cooperative for simultaneous interpretation and translation of some materials.)

Microgrants: Small, usually one-time, funding awarded to organizations or individuals to support specific projects or needs.

Movement: Collective effort by communities and organizations to address systemic injustices and shift power through people-led actions for long-term, transformative change; grounded in the rights, needs, and leadership of those most affected; often done through advocacy and/or activism that challenges the status quo of existing power structures, norms, and policies. Movements are inclusive, and success is contingent upon building broad-based support; they involve a collection of people who unite together under a shared purpose or direction.

• Plain language example: At Provecho Collective, our movement brings together people with different ideas and beliefs to advance food justice and food sovereignty across Colorado.

Movement-building: Organizing and motivating people to work towards a collective vision or cause that’s important for a community; ongoing process of cultivating relationships, aligning efforts, and strengthening collective power to advance justice.

Network of collaborators and/or partners: A cross-section group, including people of different backgrounds and experiences, that align around and work towards a common goal, such as with Provecho Collective.

Project (and project team): A group of collaborators who choose to work on an identified, actionable project by the larger workgroup, which aligns with the Provecho Collective’s commitments and mission; Provecho Collective’s projects are actionable and usually time-limited to less than two years (but can be longer), focused on a specific area, and have one or more team leads.

Political will: Key decision-makers in government are fully committed to supporting a specific solution to a problem, like tackling hunger and improving food access; this commitment is influenced and powered by the desires and demands of the public.

Public will: A shared recognition within a community, state, or other social system that a particular problem exists and there’s a shared resolve to address the situation in a certain way through sustained collective action. 

Root causes of hunger: Hunger and poverty are driven by economic and social hardships – including insufficient wages, lack of affordable housing, inadequate health care, and more – and by systemic discrimination (Food Research & Action Center). At Provecho Collective, we use root cause analysis, which is a way of digging deeper to find out why hunger exists, not just looking at the surface problem, by asking questions like “what’s causing this or behind that cause?” until the underlying issues become clear.

Social determinants of health: The conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks; access to nutritious foods, along with other factors like safe housing, racism, discrimination, education, job opportunities, income, and more, are examples. (Learn more about social determinants of health from the World Health Organization. Avoid using the acronym, SDOH or SDH, when possible.)

• Recommended language to use (from Frameworks Institute): “The places where people live, learn, work, and play shape health in many ways. For example, some neighborhoods have plenty of places to get affordable, nutritious food, while others are cut off from the supply of fresh produce. Place affects diet, which affects health. For everyone to have a full opportunity for health, we must ensure all neighborhoods have access to fresh, nutritious foods and expand programs that make healthy food affordable for all.”