Starting Point
Solidaritas Pangan Jogja is a network of public kitchens and community kitchens in Yogyakarta striving to provide food for informal workers and economically vulnerable groups during the COVID-19 pandemic, including women and others who are unable to work due to Covid-19 restrictions. This initiative was sparked through the awareness of the layered impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, where informal workers and vulnerable groups are living under health fear and economic disempowerment. This becomes more relevant considering that 51% of workers in Yogyakarta are informal workers.
The network started as one public kitchen in the house of Ita Fatia Nadia, in Ngampilan. She and her children organized the kitchen and were able to provide 50 portion of food. To help more people better, Ita Fatia Nadia contacted her colleague to encourage similar initiatives in their area. From this communication, various residents of Yogyakarta residents, including students, workers, and social activists, started to establish their own kitchens and there were 11 kitchens included in the network.
With this network, SPJ was born. The network becomes a platform for community organizing. Some volunteers provide their time to cook in the kitchen and distribute food. The network also opens channels for donations to provide more food to those in need. SPJ also collaborated with Paguyuban Petani Lahan Pantai Kulon Progo or PLPP (ie a community involving farmers facing eviction due to sand mining activities) where PLPP supplies the produce and SPJ buys the produce.
Ms. Ita Nadia came from a family who has always been active in social movements, where her father participated in the process of independence of Indonesia. Ms. Ita Nadia recounts her growing up memories in which she was also taught to always care about others. She started her activism in human rights during her study in universities in the 1980s. She was Director of Kalyana Mitra in 1992, an organization focusing on women's protection and empowerment, along with racial discrimination and other human rights violation (eg. persecution of Chinese-Indonesians in 1965), particularly in response to the oppression and injustice brought by the new order regime.
She studies history and this becomes her approach to understanding issues. This is more apparent in her activism through her historical inquiry into the persecution of Chinese-Indonesians in 1965, the attack on the PDIP office, violence against student activists, and the 1998 economic crisis riot. This inquiry made her critical of the injustice and oppression during the new order.
In addition to such activism, Ms. Ita Fatia Nadia continuously finds ways to respond to issues in her surroundings. Some of her initiatives are documenting women's history in Indonesian development and also, Solidaritas Pangan Jogja (SPJ).
Peace Journey
SPJ responds to the issue of food security by ensuring people who face challenges in obtaining food are provided food from public kitchens. Further, in supplying the food, Solidaritas Pangan Jogja ensures that their food supply is bought from farmers or sellers in traditional markets or farmers whose incomes are affected by covid-19 restrictions and injustice (eg. farmers facing evictions due to sand mining operations). This conscious choice is to ensure that SPJ activities are conducted with the focus of empowerment to those who need it the most.
SPJ has also provided opportunities for volunteers, particularly students to participate in social movements. Some volunteers have shared that SPJ allows them to develop a sense of empathy and solidarity to vulnerable groups. In this sense, SPJ helps to raise awareness by becoming a laboratory for solidarity as a social movement.
Lastly, SPJ also brings important discourses on the absence of government in addressing food security during the COVID-19 pandemic. SPJ gained coverage in mainstream media after refusing an award from the government for their contribution. SPJ refused the award because SPJ believes that the provision of awards is a waste of government resources, amidst the systematic issue faced by the general public including the lack of accessible testing sites for COVID-19. SPJ encourages the government to channel the funds for the award to initiatives that address the people's needs in an accountable and transparent manner.
Success Stories
SPJ demonstrates community resilience through community organizing. An initiative that started from a place, inspiring others to do the same. The ability to organize resources in the form of kitchen space, produce, manpower, and knowledge to operate a kitchen has created a network that helps numerous people who are in need. The spirit of a movement “for the people, by the people” during a time of crisis leads to what can be said to be an organic and spontaneous movement. Such quality allows SPJ to become a movement that inspires not only seasoned social activists but also people who may not have much experience in social movements, to do what they can, with what they have, for those who need help.
In its operation, SPJ is not without its challenges. During the pandemic, SPJ activities were intervened by officials in multiple instances with the pre-text of a possible violation of COVID-19 protocol, which was unfounded considering that SPJ followed the restrictions (ie. no more than 3 people working in the kitchen, masks were worn, and physical distancing was done). There were instances where their meeting was intervened by state intelligence who suspected that SPJ was an “anarchist” organization. The officials also interrogated SPJ staff including the question about their funding and who was behind the initiative while taking pictures of the SPJ operation. SPJ highlights that they were merely a “movement by the people, for the people” helping each other in times of need in which the funds are purely provided through donations from those who are concerned.
Responding to such intervention, Ita Fatia Nadia as coordinator of SPJ wrote a letter to the President on SPJ’s initiatives to realize the spirit of community solidarity (gotong royong) and deliver her wishes for their good faith initiative to not be intervened. Such concerns were also brought to the press and reported in mainstream media. While it is unclear whether the letter was acted upon by the officials, SPJ then continued its operation and received an award (which they rejected) from the government. This shows the ability of SPJ coordinators to defend their initiative by standing firm on the principle of helping each other and to be able to communicate their messages not only to the public, but also to the state.
During her activism, Ms. Ita Fatia Nadia has received threats from strangers but also from the regime which she criticizes, particularly during the New Order era. She recounted her experience of receiving death threats along with threats to her family as well after she planned to bring the 1998 violence against Chinese-Indonesians to the United Nations. She also recounted how her colleagues were murdered because of her activism, which affected her. To this day, she experienced surveillance and censure due to her activism, including during her involvement in Solidaritas Pangan Jogja.
In response to those challenges, Ms. Ita Fatia Nadia explained that resilience in the face of violence and oppression is the key to her activism. She recounted her time during violence in 1998 when she felt the push to physically protect a woman being beaten by men and take her to safety, despite her colleagues' concern that she would also be beaten. She also recounted that during the violence, she was perceived by someone who was the target of the violence by being asked about her religion, but she responded with “My religion is humanity”. However, she is also aware that her activism must not affect the welfare of her family, particularly her children. She recounted that she had to temporarily limit her involvement in activism spaces in order to ensure her family's safety, particularly her children.
From her activity in SPJ, Ms. Ita Fatia Nadia demonstrated empathy that moves her to swiftly respond to the issues experienced by other people. This empathy becomes part of the critical perspective towards issues as well. From such empathy, Ms. Ita Fatia Nadia's experience becomes a lesson in organizing and mobilizing people and resources.