Change Makers in the Food System

What do food and justice have to do with one another?  Well, according to Brainfood Kitchen All Star participants, both are necessary to live, both are things every human should have a right to and both are things that we deal with on a day to day basis. 

Throughout the year at Brainfood, we’ve been talking with participants about the food system.  We’ve discussed global and local food systems, food waste, food access and food justice.  Students brainstormed how we as individuals can help to make a change, take a stand and improve the food system in DC and the United States.    Ideas like boycotting businesses with practices they don’t agree with, growing your own food, eating locally, and contacting your congressman/woman all came up. 

As a follow up to our food system curriculum, we decided to invite a panel of folks who work in the community making a change. We welcomed five amazing panelists to our Chinatown site to share their stories and discuss their jobs with Brainfood participants for our Change Makers in the Food System Panel.  Thank you to, Erica Barry, 17-year-old food blogger, Ari Schwartz, DC Jobs with Justice, Jeremiah Lowery, Restaurant Opportunities Center-DC, Juju Harris, Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture and Saundrell Stevens, Co-owner of Culture Coffee.

Walking through the room, we heard snippets of conversations between the panelists and Brainfood students: 

“What inspired you to do this?”

“What did you go to college for?”

“I can’t believe restaurant workers don’t get paid sick days!”

“There are so many people involved in the food industry!” 

These are just a few examples of the amazing dialogues being had during the panel break-out sessions.  For our closing activity, we asked students to reflect upon what they had learned.  To sum it up, one participant said they learned that “one person can change the world and if they have others helping them, they can really make a change.”