GCF Year in Review

Thank you for helping us grow and expand. Your support has been vital. We know that investments take time to yield their outcomes, and we are grateful for your patience. These 13 years have been remarkable. We feel like we are just getting started.

Below are some of the things that your investments made possible in 2023.

Summer Study:

• Black Land Use and Food Supply: Ghana
  • In the United States, land ownership, food production, and food access are shaped by race and racism. According to researchers Megan Horst and Amy Marion, white Americans are most likely to own land and benefit from the wealth it generates. White people comprised over 97 percent of non-farming landowners, 96 percent of owner-operators, and 86 percent of tenant operators. Farmers of color are more likely to own less land, have smaller farm and to generate less wealth from farming than their white counterparts.
  • In 2022, we explored these issues with host, scholar and writer, Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry. In the summer of 2023, we continued explored these issues in the context of Ghana. According to the International Institute for Environmental Development, “Women farmers and forest producers in Ghana make up nearly half of the country’s crop producers, but they face multiple disadvantages. These include lack of land ownership and limited access to finance, inputs and markets and a lack of political voice.”
  • This project afforded members of the larger African diaspora to explore the connections between what is occurring in the United States and on the continent of Africa.
    • Participants in the LAND. HOME. FOOD. Spent a one week in July engaged in experiential learning to explore the causes, consequences, and potential solutions to structural inequalities around that pervade Africans and their descendants across the diaspora.

Fall Flashbacks:

• Give Thanks Cocktail Honoring those who are helping to institutionalize our work.
• Lisa Maxwell convenes Men for Menstrual Equity group with advocates.
• Green Ribbon Week expands to include the Town of Plainfield New Jersey
• GenLit Circle: Our intergenerational reading program launches in West Orange, New Jersey:
  • For more about the launch of the program, click here.

Winter Wonder:

• SuperGirl Olivia accepted to Brown University.

SuperGirl News:

• Marley Dias pens Rolling Stone article
• Amina Anekwe leads academic report at NYU
• Olivia Raymond spearheads legislation for Mental Wellness Days Off in New Jersey
  Sign the letter of support
• Jacsyn Scott and August Daniels leads Banned Book Club for multiracial group of young girls.