Activist sparks opposition to school lunch policy

PROVIDENCE — No one is free until everyone is free, said the Rev. Aundreia Alexander in her keynote address at the Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty’s annual conference Wednesday morning.

“The reality is we’re all marginalized whenever anyone is marginalized,” said Alexander, who works for the National Council of Churches in Washington, D.C. “The community is limited and lacking in its greatest potential when anyone is lacking in their greatest potential in that community.”

Alexander called on faith leaders gathered in the dining hall at Rhode Island College to bring members of their communities into the search for solutions to issues such as racism, poverty and police brutality. The sentiment hit especially close to home, though, when she called out the Warwick public school district for its recent announcement that it would give children whose parents owed lunch money only cold sandwiches until their parents paid their debts.

“That is just not acceptable, and that should bring outrage, outrage, to a group of people who are working on poverty issues,” Alexander said.

Alexander’s message had immediate ripple effects through the audience, said the Rev. Donnie Anderson of the Rhode Island State Council of Churches, who attended the conference.

“Within minutes … I got a text from an Episcopalian priest who said, 'What do you think about trying to get together some religious leaders to put pressure on [the schools] to make sure that these free lunches get done,'” she said as she pulled out her phone. “So we’re having coffee next week to talk about pulling some things together to put pressure to make sure across the state, everybody gets free lunch.”

Alexander stressed that the fight for equality must include the voices and leadership of those most affected by societal issues.

“No movement has ever been successful until those most oppressed rise up into leadership and demand change,” she told the audience.

Victoria Strang, the director and lead organizer of the Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty, which hosts the yearly conference, said the coalition is always working on advocacy initiatives and this year is helping to push legislation that would prohibit housing discrimination based on source of income. The coalition is hosting an event on May 21 to train members of faith communities in advocacy techniques and begin lobbying at the State House on a number of bills.

“It’s really important that people of faith come together, because they’re at the front lines often of what people are struggling with, and I think that legislators are very responsive to that,” she said.

Strang said Alexander was the perfect keynote speaker this year because of her experience with activism. Alexander is a former lawyer and has advocated for human rights and religious liberty around the world.

“Reverend Alexander has a long history as a lawyer, as a faith leader, of working on social justice issues and interreligious dialogue, so we wanted to get that national expertise of someone who is fighting this fight at that level,” Strang said.

In an interview after her keynote address, Alexander said that faith, no matter what denomination or religion a person belongs to can inform one’s activism and help serve as a moral compass for society.

“There is this way that if we realize and honestly believe that our lives are greater than our individual desires and wants, and that there is a God that is greater than us with whom we partner and share our work in the spiritual way, then we can do great things,” she said “I just really believe that.”

— mlist@providence journal.com

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