Food Justice NW Aurora

About Food Justice NW Aurora

About 20 percent of Aurora residents were born outside of the US, and a third of the population speaks a language other than English at home. This diversity of backgrounds brings with it a plethora of food traditions. Food Justice NW Aurora (FJNWA) is building a multicultural, intergenerational, and intersectional movement for food justice and food sovereignty. 

Food sovereignty is a movement to ensure people have access to sufficient, healthy, and culturally appropriate food, and that local people are involved in the decision-making of how and what food is produced and consumed in the community. FJNWA is working to create a just, sustainable, and complete food environment by mobilizing people, organizations, and businesses. The group also works to build community wealth and to advocate for policy and systems changes related to food.

FJNWA is the culmination of years of momentum-building. In fall of 2021, a core group of Northwest Aurora’s organizational and resident leaders formed a Steering Committee. They founded FJNWA in 2022. Then, in 2023, FJNWA launched efforts to lease unused greenhouses from the City of Aurora to create a community greenhouse for local food production and educational programming. The greenhouses will be a resource for gardeners and food producers from throughout the community who will be able to grow “starts” to extend the growing season and include a wide range of foods from their varied countries of origin.