The Health and Environmental Justice Circle (HEJ) held its 2023 planning meeting this week during sunset at Cherokee Park.  We discussed our vision for continuing to organize around food justice, air pollution in our neighborhood, and energy justice.

We discussed ways we will deepen and strengthen our work to address food insecurity, increasing the places local food can be grown on the West Side, the access to sharing that food, and the community wisdom about growing, using, and saving that food. 

We will continue to push the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and MetCouncil to consider Cumulative Pollution when considering impacts of the incinerator expansion on the West Side and other local neighborhoods, to increase monitoring sites locally, and to review the new or unregulated toxics (such as PFAS) when deciding if the expansion should move forward.

We will continue to work towards Energy Justice by connecting West Siders to solar co-operatives, collaborating with the West Sude Tenant Union to get renters connected to energy resources, and perhaps even help the push for electric school buses in 2024.

Reach out to Ellie Leonardsmith, our Health & Environmental Justice Organizer, at [email protected] if you’d like to get involved!