Our Approach
Guided by the principle of food justice, our movement strives to achieve food sovereignty. Using our unique position at the intersection of agriculture, organizing, policy, public health, and philanthropy, we incorporate our commitment to equity, language justice, accessibility, and compensation for lived experience into everything we do.
Food justice: a 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
Food sovereignty: a system in which people have power to choose what they eat, where it comes from, how it’s grown, and when it’s available.
Guided by the principle of food justice, our movement strives to achieve food sovereignty.
Food justice: a practice that recognizes food as a universal human right.
Food sovereignty: a system in which people have power to choose what they eat, where it comes from, how it’s grown, and when it’s available.
Our Commitment to Equity
We know that hunger and poverty are not experienced equally. They most often affect people and communities who have been excluded from decisions and opportunities for generations, directly impacting their well-being and livelihoods. If we want communities to shape what they grow, share, and eat, we must face these inequities head-on as part of our intersectional work. Our equity statement serves as a reflection of Provecho Collective’s commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging, guided by our organization’s internal values and principles:
- We acknowledge that our organization operates on the ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples, including the Cheyenne, Ute, and Arapahoe nations. We recognize the ongoing trauma of genocide, displacement, and forced assimilation that all Indigenous communities have endured for more than five centuries;
- We acknowledge the multigenerational trauma of Black Americans, including but not limited to slavery, segregation, and the racism in our criminal justice system;
- We acknowledge bigotry towards the LGBTQIA2+ community as an assault on their basic right to exist;
- We acknowledge systemic barriers and hatred faced by immigrant communities in this country, and the fear and targeting of other cultures for political posturing;
And we acknowledge all other forms of inequity not explicitly named here.
Language Justice & Accessibility
We are committed to accessibility for all, so everyone can fully participate and speak in the language that they feel most comfortable using. We distribute all communications and host every meeting in both English and Spanish. We also offer automated closed captioning.
Contact us if you would like to collaborate on improving language justice in your organization or community.
Compensation for Community Members
Provecho Collective values and welcomes participation by those with living or lived experience of hunger and other food injustices. We offer compensation to anyone who participates voluntarily in committee meetings, convenings, or projects outside of their existing paid professional duties.
Compensation Structure
Engagement Tier
$200 per month will be provided to anyone volunteering outside of a paid role, regardless of how many spaces they participate in. Based on the current average hours per month of participation across Provecho Collective, this rate equals about $45/hour.
Leadership Tier
Project leaders who help set agendas and/or facilitate meetings will receive an extra $200 per month ($400 total, including what they receive from the engagement tier) for every month they’re in this role. Our team member supporting the facilitation for that space selects these leads.
Payment Methods & Requirements
Please fill out this online form for each month you’re requesting compensation. (Before requesting compensation, complete and submit a W-9 to Greta Žukauskaitė on our team.)
Our fiscal sponsor, Trailhead Institute, can currently make payments to participants in the following ways:
- Direct cash payment, either as a direct deposit or check (This is considered countable income for some programs like SNAP.)
- Gift card for a specific retailer (This is *not* considered countable income for some programs like SNAP.)
Payments are subject to IRS guidelines and any payments equal to or exceeding $600 per year must be reported on a formal 1099 tax form. Therefore, to receive direct cash stipends for participating in Provecho, a person must complete a W-9 from the IRS and submit it to Greta prior to receiving compensation.
The W-9 form can be completed using either a Social Security number, a Tax ID number, or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).