This week’s Food Podcast focuses on the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank’s “food justice is social justice” initiative.

The initiative is intended to create awareness about social inequality while educating organizations focused on ending racism and creating equality.

One such organization, featured on the Food Podcast, is, The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance Pittsburgh. APALA Pittsburgh is a national organization of AAPI union members and allies advancing worker, immigrant and civil rights.

APALA member Judy Suh said the Pittsburgh chapter was created in 2019 to help immigrants with ICE activity in Pennsylvania.

“We were seeing a need for immigrant rights, especially to be foregrounded in the Pittsburgh scene,” Suh said, so the group started putting together workshops for undocumented workers.

When the pandemic hit, Suh said, things changed.

She said Asian restaurants saw a 20% to 30% reduction in revenue and anti-Asian discrimination increased.

“While historically the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community has faced racism, the ongoing covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a dramatic increase in the frequency and severity of these incidents,” said Sabrina Liu of APALA Pittsburgh.

“Stop AAPI Hate has logged 3,800+ hate incidents nationwide since March 2020, and since most people would not report their experiences of these incidents on this website, the number of incidents is very likely to be much higher. Since the pandemic began, many people have unfairly equated AAPIs with the virus itself, AAPI businesses have suffered from unwarranted fear or resentment, unemployment in the community has dramatically spiked, and AAPIs have been dying disproportionately of covid-19,” said Liu.

Suh said the mass shooting at Asian spas in Atlanta brought a coordinated effort to speak up about violence and hate.

“What we wanted to say was this kind of discrimination and violence is very old,” Suh said. “It’s longstanding in part of American history since the 19th century and trying to tackle it is what we need to do (to) get down to the root of it.”

Suh said the organization is committed to working alongside other groups for whom racism is a life-and-death issue.

“Learning more and demanding that we know more about the history of anti-Asian racism, anti-Black racism, anti-indigenous and Latino racism, we need more of that history,” Suh said. “We need more history of the contributions we’ve all made as well.”

APALA Pittsburgh has several upcoming events for those who wish to get involved. You can find details by searching APALA PGH on Facebook and Instagram.

Listen: Food Podcast features APALA Pittsburgh as part of “food justice is social justice” initiative

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