Jei Laura

Vital Village Networks

Pronouns: they/them

Jei is a facilitator and earth tender dedicated to centering decolonial ways of relating with one another, the land, and our more-than-human kin. Their work in food justice began doing student organizing while they pursued their BA in Applied Economics and at Cornell University through student organzing. Since then they’ve gone on to continue this work at the grassroots and institutional level as an educator, gardener, and facilitator for social change. Jei currently resides on unceded Muh-he-con-neok land where they’re spending their time documenting the legacies of Black and Brown neighbors and stewarding an Indigenous and abolition centered medical garden.

Presentations from Facing Race 2024

Documenting Community Leadership to Build a Just Food System

In Documenting Community Leadership to Build a Just Food System, Vital Village Networks will share more about the importance of documenting BIPOC wisdom and local solutions through the Community Food Systems Fellowship, where groups of diverse, food systems leaders across the country are brought together to share their stories to co-create roadmaps for a liberated food system. One of the 2022 alumni from the program, Yasmine Anderson, will then go into greater detail about the 2022 roadmap that she and her cohort co-created in order to share more about some of the specific recommendations to reorient policies, practices, and approaches towards a food system that is just, equitable, and powered by local communities. Participants will leave this workshop learning more about structural racism in the food system, necessary changes that are needed to support racial justice in our food system, and technical tools on how to document community wisdom and facilitate co-created roadmap processes in your own local communities.

Speakers: Jei Laura, Yasmine Anderson