Food Empowerment Project
Encyclopedia
Lauren Ornelas
lauren Ornelas is an animal rights advocate for more than 20 years and the founder and Director of the Food Empowerment Project and .Ornelas grew up in Texas, where she became a vegetarian as a child. When in high school, she became a vegan and started her first animal rights group...
.
Organization and mission
The organization is composed of a team of activists from various animal rightsAnimal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
, environmental
Environmental organization
An environmental organization is an organization that seeks to protect, analyze or monitor the environment against misuse or degradation or lobby for these goals....
and social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
organizations. They work on encouraging healthy food choices that reflect a more compassionate society by spotlighting the abuse of animals on farms, the depletion of our natural resources, unfair working conditions for produce workers, and the lack of access to healthy foods in low-income areas. In January 2011, the organization began researching companies that make vegan products containing chocolate to find out if they source their cocoa beans from countries where child labor and slavery can still be found. The frequently updated list of companies is available at http://www.foodispower.org/chocolatelist.htm
Reports
In February 2007, Satya Magazine featured an essay by lauren Ornelas titled “Breaking the Food Chains: Liberating the World Through the Power of Our Plate.”In April 2008, the Food Empowerment Project supported California Senate Bill 1443 which would required that a written contract between a retail food facility and a purchaser must include an option that allows the purchaser to direct the facility to donate any leftover food to a non-profit food bank or provide it to the purchaser.
As part of the organization's ongoing effort to emphasize the importance of healthy food choices, in March 2009 the Food Empowerment Project began surveying supermarkets, convenience stores and other retail businesses that sell food in Santa Clara County. The resulting report,
Shining a Light on the Valley of Heart’s Delight, published in August 2010, found a number of food-related inequities in the county. For example, it reveals that higher-income areas have more than twice as many large supermarkets per capita as lower-income areas, while lower-income communities have nearly twice as many liquor stores and 50 percent more markets that sell an abundance of meat products. Neither of these types of stores offers a variety of healthy food options, especially fresh fruits and vegetables.