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FIGHT FOR FOOD FREEDOM
- IamWANDA org
- Jun 5
- 6 min read
Why Food Democracy May Be the Most Important Election Issue No One Is Talking About
As Food Insecurity Rises in Prince George's County, WANDA Founder Tambra Raye Stevenson Brings a Message of Food Freedom, Civic Power, and Community Accountability to the Men's Health Forum
SEAT PLEASANT, MD. — When people think about men's health, they often think about doctor's visits, blood pressure screenings, exercise, or health insurance. Tambra Raye Stevenson wants them to think about grocery stores. She wants them to think about school meals.
About SNAP benefits. About farmers. About jobs. About neighborhood investment. About democracy.
Because in her view, food insecurity is not simply a hunger issue. It is one of the clearest indicators of whether a community is thriving or being left behind.
That message will take center stage on Saturday, June 6, 2026, when Stevenson, founder and CEO of WANDA (Women Advancing Nutrition, Dietetics, and Agriculture), delivers the luncheon keynote address at the 2026 Men's Health Forum at the Seat Pleasant Activity Center in Prince George's County, Maryland. The event, hosted by the Pi Upsilon Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, the Pi Upsilon Lambda Charitable Foundation, and Perspective Consulting LLC, will bring together residents, healthcare professionals, advocates, and community leaders to examine how food insecurity affects the mental, physical, and financial health of men and families.
The forum comes at a moment when food insecurity is becoming increasingly visible in communities that were once considered economically stable. Rising food prices, uncertainty around federal nutrition programs, workforce reductions, and persistent health disparities have left many households struggling to meet basic needs. The people seeking food assistance today are not only the traditionally poor. They are federal workers facing layoffs, retirees choosing between medicine and groceries, college students balancing tuition and food costs, and working families whose paychecks no longer stretch as far as they once did.
In Prince George's County, often celebrated as one of the nation's most affluent majority-Black counties, food insecurity still affects approximately 12 to 14 percent of residents. Many neighborhoods continue to experience what public health researchers call "food swamps" communities saturated with fast food and ultra-processed food options but lacking consistent access to affordable, nutritious food.
For Patrick Rogers, Ph.D., Co-Chair of the Men's Health Forum and member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, bringing Stevenson to this conversation was intentional.
"One of the goals of the Men's Health Forum is to bring together leaders who can help our community understand not only the health challenges we face, but also the systems that shape those outcomes," Rogers said. "Tambra Raye Stevenson brings a unique combination of expertise in public health, nutrition, communications, and community advocacy that makes her an ideal voice for this year's conversation."
He added that Stevenson's ability to work across sectors from federal government and academia to nonprofit leadership and community engagement offers a perspective that many communities desperately need right now.
"Through her work as Founder and CEO of WANDA, she has spent nearly a decade advancing solutions that connect food access, nutrition education, and community wellbeing. Her experience working across local, federal, academic, and nonprofit sectors allows her to provide a comprehensive perspective on food insecurity and its impact on the physical, mental, and financial health of men and families. We are honored to welcome Ms. Stevenson to the 2026 Men's Health Forum and look forward to the insights she will share as we continue empowering residents of Prince George's County to take ownership of their health and wellness."
That ownership is central to Stevenson's message.
A fifth-generation Oklahoman, public health professional, and Ph.D. candidate at American University, Stevenson founded WANDA in 2016 to build a pipeline and platform for women and girls of African descent to lead across nutrition, agriculture, food systems, health, and policy. Since then, the organization has grown into a nationally recognized advocate for nutrition security, food justice, and food democracy.
Her leadership spans service with the USDA National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and Economics Advisory Board, the DC Food Policy Council, the Tufts Food and Nutrition Innovation Council, the Milken Institute Food as Medicine Advisory Board, and the African Nutrition Society. Yet perhaps her most ambitious work has been advancing Food Bill of Rights—a framework created by WANDA that argues every person deserves access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally meaningful food while also having a meaningful voice in shaping the food system itself.
"Food is more than what is on our plate," Stevenson said. "Food is economic opportunity. Food is culture. Food is community. Food is power. When communities are excluded from decisions about food, they are often excluded from decisions about health, wealth, and wellbeing."
Her appearance also carries cultural significance.
As a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, Stevenson sees this invitation from Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated as part of a broader legacy of Black civic leadership.
"For generations, Black fraternities and sororities have stepped into gaps where institutions failed our communities," Stevenson said. "Whether it was education, voting rights, economic opportunity, public health, or food access, we've always understood that service is leadership. This forum reflects that tradition."
The conversation is especially urgent because food insecurity does not operate in isolation. Research consistently links food insecurity to higher rates of depression, anxiety, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, poorer educational outcomes, and reduced economic productivity. In many ways, food insecurity functions as an early warning system for broader community distress.
For Stevenson, the challenge is not simply feeding people.
It is creating food systems that are equitable, resilient, culturally relevant, and accountable to the communities they serve.
"Health does not begin in the doctor's office—it begins in our homes, neighborhoods, grocery stores, schools, and places of worship," she said. "At a time when chronic disease, food insecurity, and health inequities continue to impact our communities, we must empower residents with the knowledge, tools, and voice to advocate for healthier futures."
That focus on voice may be what distinguishes WANDA from many traditional food organizations.
Through initiatives such as WANDA Academy, WANDA Scholars, the Food Bill of Rights, WANDA Week, and the annual Sisterhood Supper: Juneteenth Celebration, the organization invests not only in education and leadership development but also in helping communities understand their relationship to food, power, and democracy.
Stevenson often describes this as moving from food charity to food citizenship.
For decades, conversations about hunger have centered on scarcity and emergency response. Those efforts remain essential. But Stevenson argues that solving food insecurity also requires asking deeper questions:
Who decides what food is available?
Who profits from the food system?
Whose voices shape policy?
Who gets invited into conversations about solutions?
And who is left out?
Those questions become increasingly important as communities confront uncertainty around federal nutrition programs, public health funding, and economic opportunity.
For Stevenson, the answer begins with participation.
"The future of food will not be decided only in Congress or state legislatures," she said. "It will be decided in our neighborhoods, our schools, our churches, our farms, our kitchens, and our communities. Food freedom is not something we inherit. It is something we build together."
As WANDA celebrates its 10th anniversary, that vision continues to guide its work. What began as an effort to make Black women visible within food systems has evolved into a broader movement for food freedom—one that recognizes food not merely as nutrition, but as a pathway to health, belonging, economic opportunity, and civic participation.
The Men's Health Forum offers an opportunity to move beyond awareness toward action.
For residents of Prince George's County, that action may look like supporting local farmers, participating in community food planning, enrolling eligible families in nutrition programs, advocating for healthier food environments, attending local food policy meetings, or simply asking elected officials where they stand on hunger, nutrition, and food access.
For communities across America, the challenge is larger.
At a time when food insecurity is rising, chronic disease remains one of the nation's greatest public health threats, and public trust in institutions continues to erode, food democracy may be one of the most consequential conversations we can have.
Because the question is no longer simply whether people have enough to eat.
The question is whether they have a voice in shaping the systems that determine who eats, who thrives, and who belongs.
Event Details
2026 Men's Health Forum | Saturday, June 6, 2026 | 10:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
The forum will feature three panel discussions examining the impact of food insecurity on:
Mental Health
Physical Health
Financial Health
Tambra Raye Stevenson will serve as the luncheon keynote speaker. To learn more about WANDA, WANDA Week, the Food Bill of Rights, and the 6th Annual Sisterhood Supper: Juneteenth Celebration, visit WANDA's official website.
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