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Attendees skate at the Skate for Food Justice event at Astro Skate of Orlando on Wednesday. The funds from the event will be used to build community gardens around Orlando.<\/p>\n
Emiliana Chavez<\/p>\n
Skate for Food Justice<\/a>, an event organized by\u00a0Sunrise Movement Orlando, Sunrise UCF and the UCF League of Women Voters, was held at Astro Skate of Orlando on Wednesday to fight food insecurity and raise funds to build gardens in the community.<\/p>\n Tickets for entry were $10, while half of each ticket purchase went toward the cause.<\/p>\n Aija Diaz, a political science graduate, is a member of the Sunrise Movement Orlando and helped organize the event. She said Sunrise Orlando noticed there were many food deserts in Central Florida<\/a>, primarily in minority communities.\u00a0She said members wanted to find out why this happens and how they could\u00a0change it.<\/p>\n The U.S. Department of Agriculture<\/a>\u00a0uses the Food Access Research Atlas<\/a> to map \u201clow-income and low-access\u201d areas with limited access to places that sell healthy, affordable food, which it uses\u00a0to define food deserts.<\/p>\n The share of the population in low-income and low-access tracts in Florida in 2015 was 14.72%<\/a>, according to USDA data.<\/p>\n Diaz said that with the money raised through this event, those in the organization want to go around different neighborhoods in Orlando asking if they could use empty land to plant\u00a0two-by-four-foot\u00a0gardens with fresh produce.<\/p>\n The people in these neighborhoods wouldn’t have to worry about taking care of these gardens, Diaz added, but rather SMO would bring volunteers every Saturday and the food\u00a0produced can go to community\u00a0members who don\u2019t have access to fresh produce.<\/p>\n \u201cOur biggest goal is also the community building, learning, knowing faces, knowing names, knowing how we can help,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cBecause at the end of the day, we\u2019re here to connect everybody. We want to be the connector. We want to be the glue.\u201d<\/p>\n Members of the Sunrise Movement Orlando talk with District 5 Commissioner and UCF professor Dr. Kelly Martinez Semrad (right) at Astro Skate of Orlando on Wednesday. The Skate for Food Justice event was put together by Orlando-based organizations to raise money to fight food insecurity.\u00a0<\/p>\n Emiliana Chavez<\/p>\n Dr. Kelly Martinez Semrad, District 5 commissioner and a UCF professor, joined the event to support the cause. She said Sunrise Orlando helped her with her campaign and she thinks they are a great organization.<\/p>\n \u201cSunrise Orlando talks about urban forestry and doing fleet farming and using our spaces for productivity, whether it be for farming in urban areas or whether it be for leisure and activity and exercise,\u201d Martinez Semrad said.\u00a0\u201cI just think that land is a scarce commodity, and we have to use it in the most practical, most logical, most impactful ways.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Chloe Scott, senior political science major and president of UCF League of Women Voters, helped organize this event. She said the organization wanted to help promote this event because issues\u00a0like community deserts are important, especially given Orlando’s\u00a0affordability crisis<\/a>, she added.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving these events, banding together, especially as young people, it\u2019s so important because we really are making a change for the oncoming generations and even the people now who are struggling,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n The fundraiser hit close to home for Sophia McKenzie, a member of the Sunrise Movement Orlando who grew up in west Orlando and said the area is \u201csurrounded by junk food\u201d and people from low-income backgrounds\u00a0don\u2019t have access to affordable, nourishing meals.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel very connected to the cause,\u201d McKenzie said. \u201cFood is to nourish ourselves, it\u2019s how we stay healthy and a lot of the time people don\u2019t have the education to know about that or the access. And I feel like food is another way to keep us subjugated.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Members of Sunrise UCF, Sunrise Movement Orlando and the League of Women Voters of UCF gather at Astro Skate of Orlando for the Skate for Food Justice event. The event took place Wednesday to raise funds for building community gardens around Orlando.\u00a0<\/p>\n Emiliana Chavez<\/p>\n Diaz said the organization raised $400 from the event and plans to use this money to buy materials to start working on the community gardens.<\/p>\n Diaz said they hope to continue hosting\u00a0fundraising events like these to focus on more community-based causes that may not be as large-scale but can be addressed\u00a0with small steps.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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