E37: Fostering Community and Social Equity w/Orion Kriegman
Episode 37 of We are Open Circle’s Beyond Listening Podcast saw Orion Kriegman come on to the show to share his experiences with the Boston Food Forest Coalition, recounting formative personal experiences, challenges and visions for the future.
How formative experiences of social inequity planted the seed for inspiring change.
The fundamental role of community and collaboration in revitalising urban areas.
His observations of radical transformation in the work of BFFC.
Orion Kriegman is Executive Director at Boston Food Forest Coalition, a non-profit community land trust dedicated to building nourishing relationships between neighbors, land, and food.
Here are some of the key insights from the conversation...
His experiences living in different countries showed him the necessity for change.
”I spent two years living in Guatemala after their Civil War, where there was significant genocide against the indigenous peoples of Guatemala. So I think that more than anything opened my eyes in a more radical way to, what does it mean to be outside the borders of Empire, the privileges of having been born inside the Empire... just the suffering that people routinely have to deal with. I remember reading at one point: 3 billion people don't have regular and consistent adequate access to clean water. At the time I was like: that's half of humanity. That's half of humanity crying out. It's just not possible to turn away from that, in my mind.”
The work of BFFC is providing tangible change in Boston communities.
“The women who are the leaders of the stewardship team, they wrote me a very nice card that just affirmed that the work we're doing really does matter and impacts people in their lives. And that brought tears to my eyes because it's like: Yeah! I mean that's it. The fact that you can feel the purpose of it. That these are like tangible seeds of hope. Because they say the best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago and the second best time is today. So we're putting trees in the ground for the future... and that tangibility of that hope is so important, I think.”
Community ownership presents an opportunity to rebuild and grow our relationships with our neighbors.
”We need to reinvigorate this democracy muscle so that the next generation has an easier path and hopefully the generation after that even easier. There really isn’t a shortcut. There really is no silver bullet. It’s hard work and we have to build trust and community moves at the speed of trust.”
