Andrea Gonzalez: Lived Experience Leading the Movement
Andrea Gonzalez: Lived Experience Leading the Movement
About the Policy Leadership Council:
Oregon Food Bank's Policy Leadership Council — made up entirely of community leaders with lived experience of hunger and its root causes — will, going forward, determine Oregon Food Bank's policy agenda. The Council will act collectively to identify opportunities for change, articulate a systems-change platform to guide Oregon Food Bank’s legislative priorities, and set our positions on legislation and ballot measures.
By recruiting and empowering leaders from communities directly impacted by hunger, Oregon Food Bank will build, share and expand the power needed to advance racial justice and win systemic change.
Andrea Gonzalez is a leader living in the Oregon coastal region who knows that people experiencing hunger and its root causes are the real experts on hunger. No two communities are the same: geographical, cultural, and material differences mean that the solutions to hunger are as unique and varied as the coast, the cities, and the farmlands that make up our state.
That’s why in 2021 Andrea led a Latine Community Needs Assessment in Tillamook county to hear directly from members of the community, particularly farm and agricultural workers. She wanted to know what would make the most meaningful difference in their lives and how the network of local organizations could improve access to resources. Partnering with the Tillamook County Food Bank, Andrea was able to create culturally-specific food services for migrant workers in the area.
What the community needs assessment data confirmed for Andrea, however, was that getting food and resources to people today is only part of the puzzle of ending food insecurity. “As someone who is working directly with families on a daily basis,” Andrea shares, “Sometimes it feels like we are constantly putting out metaphorical fires. For example addressing food insecurity by delivering culturally specific food boxes, which are a real necessity for so many at this time and even before the pandemic hit. But I also think it's important that we try to assess what is really the cause of these day-to-day struggles and how can we address those issues? I think when it comes to that, we need to think a bit bigger-scale and policy change is something that needs to happen to be able to actually meet the needs of the community, especially the communities that have been marginalized for so long.”
Andrea is excited to join the Policy Leadership Council to start making changes that address the root causes of hunger. She believes hunger, barriers to employment, education, housing and health care are all interconnected and exacerbated by unfair systems. “These systems are not really made for BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and People of Color], they’re made to exploit us,” Andrea says. The Policy Leadership Council will have a critical role in setting the vision for Oregon Food Bank’s policy and advocacy work to fight for systems that are made for all of us.
Andrea believes that a strengths-based approach in the fight for anti-hunger policy is key. It’s easy to focus on the barriers we face, but she notes that there is strength, creativity and resilience in our communities and she has faith that will help create the solutions to hunger. “How can we get together to think in a creative, innovative way -- in a community oriented way?”
Andrea’s passion to change the systems and policies that exploit farm and agricultural workers comes from her own experience. “I was a migrant child as well,” she shares. “Growing up, I remember living in a little trailer with my dinner table also doubling up as my bed. I have lived experience and those type of situations are something that I still see today. And that's really what motivates me to continue doing this work because I know that if we continue to just let it happen, nothing's going to change.”
