Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies

Seeding Seed Releaf

Shifting dominator culture, one plate at a time

Kris Malone Grossman

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24926/ijps.v8i1.3725

Keywords: partnership, partnerism, Women’s Spirituality, tikkun olam, grassroots Covid-19 relief effort, mothering, care work, pandemic, Seed Releaf, food equity

Abstract

How does a grassroots Covid-19 relief effort help to promote partnership culture? This article offers a first-person account of partnership values at work in Seed Releaf, a community-based organization co-founded by the author in response to local food inequity amplified by the coronavirus pandemic. Tracing the origin of Seed Releaf to partnership, Jewish, and Women’s Spirituality precepts, the author describes how a single relief organization connects and supports multiple entities—restaurants, farms, community groups—while delivering nutritious meals to hungry neighbors. In addition to illustrating how Seed Releaf provides an example of everyday people working to care for one another during global crisis, the article also addresses how Covid-19 exacerbates existing systems of oppression and further necessitates partnership in and across communities. A seven-point template offers readers a blueprint for how to replicate a Seed Releaf model in their own communities, and help to shift from a culture of domination to partnership, one plate at a time.