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• Protecting Water | FAQ
  • Teach for the Watershed
  • Raingardens of West Michigan, Low Impact Development & Stormwater
  • West Michigan Stream Projects
  • Michigan Groundwater Stewardship Program
• Restorative Institutions | FAQ
  • West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum
  • Our Kitchen Table
  • Greater Grand Rapids Food Systems Council
  • Greater Grand Rapids Children’s Environmental Health Initiative
  • Religion, Ecology & Spirituality
  • Michigan Interfaith Power & Light
• Sustainable Communities | FAQ
  • Energy Conservation
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  • Land Use Advocacy

Our Kitchen Table

Mission To promote social justice and to empower female parents and caregivers to improve the health of their children through education, community organizing, and advocacy.

Goal is to build a neighborhood-based women’s advocacy group.

Our Kitchen Table & WMEAC WMEAC & Our Kitchen Table partner to address issues of environmental justice in our community. In 2006 & 2007 WMEAC & OKT, along with other community stakeholders, worked to launch the Greater Grand Rapids Children’s Enviornmental Health Initiative (GGRCEHI) and subsequently became the reciepients of funding from the US Enviromental Protection Agency’s CARE (Communities Acting for a Renewed Environment) grant http://www.epa.gov/CARE/. Find more information about the GGRCEHI on this website.

History Our Kitchen Table was formed in 2003 as a nonprofit, member-run organization that serves the communities of greater Grand Rapids. The group is led by Lisa Oliver King. Its focus is helping low-income women build their personal understanding of the root causes of oppression, and to increase their participation in leadership and purposeful action. Our Kitchen Table was funded through an Environmental Justice grant program of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2004.

Founding Principles Elements of oppression are structural, and include race and gender bias and disparities in wealth and power. When women build their knowledge and leadership skills, individually and collectively, they increase their capacity to make positive change in their lives and communities. They are then equipped with the understanding and skills to assess their problems and seek successful solutions.

“To achieve a just and sustainable community each and every citizen to be invested in the success of that community,” states Lisa Oliver King. “The first step in creating a sustainable community is creating a vision for our future where we become mutually reliant on one another for our success and survival.”

For more information about Our Kitchen Table, contact WMEAC at info@wmeac.org.

Action Items

Great Lakes Great Michigan is a campaign to bring Michigan’s laws in line with the Great Lakes Compact, a regional agreement among the 8 Great Lakes States to preserve, protect and restore our Great Lakes. Take Action! Participate in the campaign at their website.

Clean Kent County - Every day an estimated 1 million gallons of untreated waste from toilets and household drains is discharged from Kent County’s failing septic systems. Clean Kent County is a campaign to improve Kent County’s efforts to address this growing issue. To learn more or get involved contact Shawn Wessel at swessell@wmeac.org.

Hispanic Environmental Health Webpage The EPA has launched a new site in Spanish, for Hispanic U.S. residents. It provides information on environmental issues and their effects.