Jalal Sabur

While at college at SUNY Purchase Jalal Sabur organized students to take all the left over food from the dining hall to local shelters and food pantries, organized trips to give out clothes and food to homeless in New York City, and led the Black Student Union to address numerous racist incidents on campus.

As an organizer with WESPAC Foundation and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM), Jalal helped start the food justice committees within both organization. As part of Malcolm X Grassroots Movement Jalal co-created Potential 2 Power Project in East New York, Brooklyn where young people were taught gardening skills, cooking and nutrition skills and trainings on knowing your rights when you encounter the police.

In 2011 Jalal started farming with Wassaic Community Farm to grow produce for farmers markets, run a Community Supported Agriculture program and to do a gleaning project. While in Wassaic Jalal co-founded the Freedom Food Alliance, a collective of small rural and urban farmers, activists, artists, community folks, and political prisoners who use food as an organizing tool. The alliance started the VROOM Cooperative and Victory Bus Project to connect urban and rural communities and to support families of prisoners with transportation to prison in the Hudson Valley and a box of farm fresh food. For this season Jalal is continuing the work of the Alliance, plus starting Sweet Freedom Farm in Germantown, NY doing farm education, a maple syrup operation and working on building a Farms Not Prisons movement.