Rural Community Worker’s Alliance

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Rural Community Workers Alliance

Rural Community Worker’s Alliance (RCWA) received its first ever grant from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) of $40,000 during the CCHD’s 2020-2021 grants cycle.

At issue is the fact that RCWA is a member of two radically pro-abortion organizations called the Heal Food Alliance and the Food Chain Workers Alliance.

The CCHD absolutely forbids organizations from membership in organizations acting against Catholic teaching.  In an FAQ on the USCCB website, the CCHD directly answers the question about whether grantees may be members of coalitions that oppose Catholic teachings.  In answer, the CCHD firmly stated, “CCHD will not fund groups that are knowingly members of coalitions that have as part of their organizational purpose or coalition agenda, positions or actions that contradict fundamental Catholic moral and social teaching.”
The HEAL Food Alliance website identifies RCWA as a “Core Member.”
On its membership page, the HEAL Food Alliance indicates that member organizations pay annual dues, though it is unclear how much those dues are.

On July 5, 2022, HEAL Food Alliance publicly condemned the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, claiming that the decision “undermined the sovereignty, power, and bodily autonomy of people with uteri,” and “access to safe medical care, including safe abortion care, is an essential part of a thriving future for all of us.”  It then added a bullet point indicating where people can obtain help in paying for an abortion:

• If you need help paying for an abortion, or have the means to contribute to support others who need financial help, tap in to the National Network of Abortion Funds.

On June 24, the day of the SCOTUS decision, HEAL retweeted a statement from HEAL’s co-founder and executive director, Navina Khanna, claiming that the fight for abortion is linked to their fight for “food, land, farm justice.”
On facebook, HEAL’s statement was even more explicit, declaring that “access to abortion … is a human right that we will not stop fighting for.”  In other words, HEAL announced that its agenda includes fighting for access to abortion.
RCWA is also a member of the Food Chain Workers Alliance.
This relationship also includes financial support.  According to the Food Chain Workers Alliance’s most recent tax form 990, the organization does indeed collect dues from its members.  And the Food Chain Workers Alliance has taken formal positions regarding same-sex “marriage,” and abortion.

On June 26, 2015, the Food Chain Workers Alliance celebrated the SCOTUS decision on same-sex “marriage.”
Even more egregiously, just this year, after the Dobbs V. Jackson decision that overturned Roe V. Wade, FCWA issued a formal statement on the SCOTUS ruling, saying,

“We are outraged by the U.S. Supreme Court’s brazen agenda to disempower our communities while expanding the reach of corporations and the carceral state. SCOTUS rulings of the past year have protected the interests of the corporate class while stripping away our rights to bodily autonomy, privacy, and reproductive choice;”

Concomitant with that, FCWA retweeted a statement that overturning Roe is an indication that “SCOTUS is in it to kill (us).”

Conclusion

In direct violation of CCHD grant guidelines, RCWA is a member of two radically pro-abortion organizations called the Heal Food Alliance and the Food Chain Workers Alliance.