2 - Fostering Racial Justice via Values-Based Food Procurement in the Good Food Buffalo Coalition

Summary

On 14 May 2022, a white supremacist murdered ten people at a Tops Friendly Markets in a predominantly Black neighbourhood of Buffalo, NY. Residents mourned those killed and feared this massacre would inspire other racialized violence in their neighbourhoods. The immediate closure of Tops, the only supermarket in the area, added to this trauma and instantly rendered thousands – many of whom are food insecure and do not have personal transportation – without access to healthy food, toiletries, and other essentials (Stahl, 2022). While the (newly renovated) Tops soon reopened, enduring grief and fear prevent many residents from shopping there. The devastating impacts of the Tops massacre on the psychological and physical health of Buffalo's communities of colour are thus ongoing, exemplifying the enduring consequences of racialized violence on food (in)justice in the US today.

Buffalo, a post- industrial city with about 33 per cent of its more than 276,000 people identifying as Black, 12 per cent as Latino, and 45 per cent as white, is one of the most segregated cities in the US (Blatto, 2018; US Census Bureau, 2021). This segregation, together with decades of redlining and systemic disinvestment in Buffalo's communities of colour, created the preconditions enabling the racially motivated mass shooting at Tops: the only supermarket in the area, serving a predominantly Black population. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, discussions of segregation, food apartheid, and systemic disinvestment briefly inundated mainstream media and political conversations. Calls for food justice resounded and funding flooded local organizations. Yet much of this attention faded within months, leaving Buffalo communities still healing from this trauma.

I open this chapter with the 14 May Tops massacre for two reasons. First, I cannot write about food (in)justice in Buffalo without uplifting the beautiful souls murdered and acknowledging how this attack changed life for Buffalo residents. Second, we must counter mainstream discourses by recognizing the long history of food justice efforts in Buffalo; activists and community members have worked for decades to illuminate the issues so briefly highlighted by dominant narratives in this attack's aftermath. The Tops itself, opened in 2003, was a result of a decade of organizing by Buffalo residents who did not have access to a full- service supermarket (The Food Equity Scholars, 2022). Today, many continue this long legacy of food justice organizing in Buffalo.