Angelica Cortes, she/her/ella: Portland, Oregon
Angelica Cortes is a true community leader. An organizer, volunteer, and mentor, Angelica has helped her community access affordable, nutritious food and inspired countless others to organize together to eliminate the root causes of hunger for good. For years, Angelica has been leading the anti-hunger movement in Oregon. She describes community organizing as part of her essence, and she is passionate about promoting education and access to fresh, nutritious, local and culturally-relevant foods while organizing to lift up her community’s voice to change harmful policies.
Angelica was chosen as Oregon Food Bank’s 2019 Hunger Hero for her work as a Growing Gardens Community Organizer and her health equity work in Promotores de Salud. Now, on the Policy Leadership Council, Angelica is interested in continuing to advocate for undocumented immigrants and farmworkers, by advancing policies like No Worker Left Behind, which changed laws excluding undocumented workers from receiving tax benefits in Oregon. “I would like more support for [farmworkers],” she shares. “Because you know they are working, even when it is raining, cold, or hot. Even during the wildfires, they were always there. They are the forgotten ones, and they are the first to be ready to work.”
Alhough Angelica continues to provide garden classes, support food distributions, and host health and wellness workshops, her role on the Policy Leadership Council has opened opportunities to organize to address the root causes of hunger. Angelica got involved in advocacy while registering people to vote and to count themselves in the 2020 Census. She saw that people in her community were afraid to register for the Census because of fear tactics and misinformation created to keep undocumented immigrants from making their voices heard. She met people over 18 who didn’t even know they were eligible to vote because of their parents’ immigration status. This inspired her to keep organizing and advocating to make her community’s voice heard.
To read more of the Policy Leadership Council's article, please click here.
About the Policy Leadership Council:
Our Policy Leadership Council — made up entirely of community leaders from across the state with lived experience of hunger and its root causes — determines Oregon Food Bank's policy agenda. The Council will act collectively to identify opportunities for change, articulate a systems-change platform to guide Oregon Food Bank’s legislative priorities, and set our positions on legislation and ballot measures.By recruiting and empowering leaders from communities directly impacted by hunger, Oregon Food Bank will build, share and expand the power needed to advance racial justice and win systemic change.
Comments (0)