Ramata Diebate marched on Chase Bank to call for give backs for state food programs
In 2011 Ramata Diébaté, a 2007 graduate of the University of Washington, discovered Got Green’s Women in Green Economy Project and quickly became involved:
“I was breastfeeding my 18 month old and I was very aware of what types of nutrients I was putting into my body, but with two small children, financing a healthier lifestyle was a concern for our family. I decided to be involved in order to help other women and families that might be experiencing the same challenges.”
Ramata’s continuing involvement with Got Green has inspired her to do social justice work. She is currently involved with the King County Parent Advocacy Committee and works at the King County Superior Court for their Parent-to-Parent program.
Looking forward to the next phase of the Women in Green Economy project, Ramata describes the immediate need for changing the status of the food desert in the Skyway neighborhood.
“Now we are going to embark on the Skyway food desert. This is going to be very interesting. Wal-Mart is going to try to use the food desert status of Skyway as an advantage to get in, because the federal agriculture program defines food desert as a low-income community that has a low access to a supermarket. A supermarket which makes more than 2 million dollars a year is the one that’s going to change the status of a food desert, because they’re able to provide all the food groups, which small stores are not able to provide. But we think it’s different, because if we had fruit & vegetable stands within walking distance the residents would have easy access to at least the fresh food.”
Reflecting the feelings of many women, Ramata adds:
“I used to tune out the idea of ‘green.’ It’s because I always felt everything that was marketed as green and organic was overpriced; it felt like a ploy. So I always tuned out that message. But once I really started thinking about green in our community and how green really affects our families, it changed my whole mind frame. It’s because of Got Green that I sat down and really thought about it.
Community organizations like Got Green are important. A lot of people in America cycle through poverty. People go through ups and downs. There are families that just don’t know where to go, because they’re not used to needing help. But if you help people now, they’ll be more productive later on. I want more families to get involved and to show different faces of who people are and of our circumstances. Most people are not on their downward spiral. It’s mostly helping people back up to where they need to be. “
(Got Green 2010-2011 Organizing Report, April 2012)