Dr Alan and
Karen Warren

Every organization wishes it had enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers like Karen and Alan Warren. Their support of Food & Water Watch is inspired by authentic experience with issues they care about both locally and nationally and was shaped by their feeling overwhelmed and helpless following the 2016 election.

Karen says of Food & Water Watch staff, “The people that I met were passionate, knowledgeable and happy to explain all the steps in organizing and advocacy. I highly recommend other volunteers. It’s rewarding and you feel like you are making a contribution. When someone says they can’t believe all this happened, I tell them, ‘do something, sign the petition, send money, get involved’.”

The Warrens first heard about fracking from Karen’s sister who had concerns about the dangerous process happening in her own backyard. She helped convince Karen it was important to pay attention. That encouragement paid off as they are fighting back the Williams pipeline in their own neighborhood. In that effort – and others – they find that Food & Water Watch “shines a light on dark corners of specific issues like food, water and renewable energy.”

The Warrens are also shining a light; they talk to their friends about their connection to Food & Water Watch and the work we are doing together. They send emails and they post online. They find social media to be especially impactful among their friends.

Karen and Alan agree about Food & Water Watch: “They are a great bunch of people to work with, every time we talk to someone – volunteers, staff, or Wenonah – they are all amazing.” But we have to say, the feeling is mutual, Karen and Alan. They are true leaders in the fight for our food, water and climate.

Laura Bernstein

I’m a committed citizen-environmentalist, and have contact with many organizations. Food & Water Watch stood out for me, initially, because of its Take Back the Tap campaign to limit the use of bottled water: why use three times the water and create plastic pollution when tap water is safe and healthy? And why allow companies to privatize and profit from our public water supply? I took the pledge to avoid bottled water and have been attuned to this issue ever since.

Food & Water Watch’s research follows the science to inform its advocacy and the organization does not back down to corporate interests. The fact that Food & Water Watch does not take corporate money motivates me even more to support it through my annual giving and my actions.

A few years back, I accompanied Food & Water Watch staff members on a trip to my state senator’s office to educate and advocate for a bill to label genetically modified organisms (GMOs), as we have a right to know what’s in our food. I was impressed by the staff members’ careful preparation for this meeting, and we managed to move my representative on the issue! I realized how important my participation was.

Today, I am paying close attention to how we move forward to ban fracking nationwide. Food & Water Watch was the first organization to call for a fracking ban and its sheer determination led to victories no one thought possible. It is also the first organization to call for a ban on factory farms, a major contributor to water and air pollution, not to mention animal cruelty, worker safety and big corporations squeezing out the family farmer, farm by farm.

I know through the efforts of Food & Water Watch and the people-power of me and millions of others, we can win. It is our collective responsibility to save our planet.

Bill Gee and
Sue Crothers

In 2019, we watched in horror as climate chaos struck Australia. Millions of acres went up in flames while one billion animals perished in the “mega blaze.” For Food & Water Watch supporters, Bill Gee and Sue Crothers, an annual family trip to Sydney brought the reality of climate change disturbingly close to home.

Sue (who is originally from Sydney) and husband Bill spend winters “Down Under” to visit Sue’s family. Fortunately, their family was not directly impacted by the fires. But when they arrived in December 2019, they were greeted by a dark shroud of smoke and haze. Terrible air quality was a constant reminder that people nearby were fighting to save their homes and wildlife.

As longtime supporters of Food & Water Watch and other progressive organizations through their family’s foundation, Sue and Bill have been fighting to halt climate change for some time. But these catastrophic fires bring a new urgency to this battle and a need to stop the misinformation machine and leadership void that slows progress.

“An organization like Food and Water Watch is trying to keep people clear-eyed and factual about what is going on, while trying to engage the population. I don’t see this in Australia,” Bill says. “The Murdoch media empire is pushing a false narrative by skewing the statistics, so it minimizes the positive actions we make and takes the focus off the fossil fuel problem. On the flip side, you have the more responsible media talking about climate change in the big picture context. So it all depends on where people get their information.”

Bill and Sue see the lack of leadership in the United States as having a direct impact on places like Australia, and feel that if the U.S. would take meaningful action, Australia would follow.

“The Australian government is actually quite effective when it institutes change. America’s lack of leadership is causing a mixed reaction in Australia and they are just not jumping into solving the issue as they normally would, “ said Sue.

While governments languish on the issue, the couple believes there are things each of us can do in our daily lives to combat this problem. They see philanthropy as only a small part of what can be done.

“Being thoughtful about every investment, every purchase, and every charitable donation you make creates impact. If we are all more thoughtful about our actions, we’d be so much closer to where we need to be, “ said Bill.

Getting involved in your local community is critical, and Sue sees Food & Water Watch as a main force in local fights. “Grassroots activism and mobilization on the local level is key. It’s really where it all starts because it’s personal. Food and Water Watch recognizes that supporting local groups pushing for environmental policy changes with their local governments is a fundamental strategy to move the needle with policy change on the national and international level.”

“I wish we had an organization like Food & Water Watch in Australia,” says Bill. “Not having that type of support here makes you realize how important it is, and not seeing it in Sydney makes me realize how important it is to have Food & Water Watch in Chicago and elsewhere in the U.S.”

Daniel Tahara

Are you finding a silver lining during COVID? Donor, Daniel Tahara, didn’t have to look far. That silver lining came in the form of local organizing. It’s a path that started a few years ago after Daniel first began donating to Food & Water Watch and learning about our theory of change.

As a software engineer in San Francisco, Daniel had internalized the Silicon Valley ethos: that one should work on the biggest problem at biggest scale. For Daniel, that ethos applied to fighting climate change, as he looked to national organizations that focus on federal legislation.

At the time when Daniel got to know Food & Water Watch and our philosophy of change, things began to change for him. Food & Water Watch’s focus on the local and community awakened in Daniel the permission he needed to seek out a more meaningful experience in the climate fight. He began to volunteer for a local climate group, became vegetarian, and then asked himself, “Will I feel better, less guilty, if I switch to a job that’s climate focused? If change is the most important thing to me, why am I spending 60 hours a week doing distributive data-based software stuff? I felt like something was missing.” He then transitioned from a career as a software engineer at Drop Box to Carbon Lighthouse, a company that reduces energy use in commercial buildings as a way to fight climate change.

As fortune would have it, Daniel was told that every staff member at Food & Water Watch reads Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy Manual for Activists and is trained in this method of organizing. Daniel read the manual cover to cover and implemented its teachings into his local climate group. Daniel attributes this manual to transforming his own activism: “I didn’t know what to do. I thought, let me read this book and try something. I tried to take the group through it, and it helped. We [The San Francisco Climate Emergency Coalition] went from an informal rag-tag band to a slightly larger group with a real goal. It shaped my 2020 approach to organizing.” Daniel recited to me the underlying message of the book: “It’s important to feel your own power. You need to share with other activists and give them a continual sense of their own power and impact to keep them engaged.”

What was the result? In 2020, Daniel’s group won a decisive victory: a new construction ordinance in San Francisco which bans gas on all new buildings! Food & Water Watch first gave Daniel the permission to act locally and then gave him the tools to help his fellow climate activists to achieve that landmark ordinance which sent shockwaves throughout California and elsewhere.

Daniel Tahara took what he learned from Food & Water Watch and applied it to his life. He found that the joy of community – forged virtually – has helped him endure the long months of quarantine. “It [community] makes you feel better. It does give you a sense of power, and you do have influence. Community does matter. It can build to something. It’s like phases that begins with permission.”