Dia Legacy
Promoting community wellness, Access to food and housing as a Human Right. Retreat and Learning Center for BIPOC leaders and Communities.
Dia Legacy, LLC (Dia Legacy) is a real estate subsidy of Moving Mountains, Inc. Dia Legacy, LLC’s mission is to build strong and vibrant communities by addressing food justice and housing security. We envision a community where all people can access culturally specific and affordable food and free/affordable housing. To make food justice and housing security a reality for all, we firmly believe that we should focus on Queer folks, women, children, youth, and those differently abled or with chronic illness. Additionally, we must emphasize poor and working-class BIPOC families. We know that to be successful, we must shift how resources–such as land and property–are distributed and utilized.
Cultural Organizing; Inclusive Economic Models & Community-Controlled Systems; Reclaiming Democracy; Promoting Indigenous and Ancestral Foodways and Agricultural Practicescommunities identify and initiate their own solutions to economic, social and environmental issues within food and agriculture to build healthy, economically viable communities. We believe that by supporting community-controlled systems – where people have control and stewardship over their narrative, systems, capital, and spaces – people will come before profit.reclaiming democratic control of our food and agricultural systems so that those systems are shaped and determined by the people who comprise them, not corporate interests. strives to lift up the work of organizations that are promoting indigenous and ancestral food ways and agricultural practices, which means we support natural, sustainable and regenerative systems and communities that have been historically marginalized to ensure they are no longer on the margins of opportunities and resources.
Though we are not doing all of this yet- these are our shared values.
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Food Justice
Access to affordable, healthy, and culturally specific foods is a human right. All people should have the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to grow their foods. As part of this, it is necessary to preserve cultural knowledge of farming and food practices and give people the land and resources they need to achieve greater food sovereignty. We realize that to embrace our agricultural heritage, it must be more economically and environmentally sustainable. Moreover, we must build trusting relationships between all members of the food lifecycle and the food economy.
Housing as a Human Right
All people should have access to affordable, healthy, and accessible housing in neighborhoods and communities that foster mutual respect, care, and love. Everyone has the right to a secure, safe, loving, supportive, and affordable home.
Recent Activities & Current Impact
We have secured a 26-acre plot of land in Dane County. The property includes a single-family home, a detached garage, a barn with electricity, and farmland. It is zoned to permit nonprofit community use and small-scale farming. This property will become the site of many projects and initiatives supporting our food justice and housing security mission. Moreover, we will center people and their lived experiences in these projects/initiatives by collaborating and co-creating with the community.
We want to create a shared-use food processing and distribution facility on our Dia Legacy, LLC property for local, small-scale BIPOC farmers, growers, and producers. The facility would help them to develop value-added products that generate year-round income; this will simultaneously address winter “food desserts” in Midwest by providing accessible, affordable, and culturally-specific foods. It would also provide cold/freezer storage to enhance its food aggregation capacity, thereby increasing revenue among farmers. Finally, refrigerated trailers and other delivery-related vehicles/attachments would be made available to participating community farmers, who could use them to distribute their produce/products. Other initiatives include training, education, market development, etc.
Some of the land will also be dedicated to edible food farming. Through this farm and the single-family home on the property, Dia Legacy LLC will offer immersive experiences that support self-care and well-being by reconnecting people with nature, our heritage, and our spirituality. People, groups, and organizations can lease our space to organize gatherings that promote healing, empowerment, and transformation. Enjoy the sensory splendor that nature offers. Work the land deep into your kinesthetic link to the Earth. And harvest and cook your own food to nourish your body and soul. This incredible space, located just half an hour outside of Madison, is the perfect place to rejuvenate and re-energize yourself.
