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In August 2022, WANDA’s Sisterhood Supper featured a virtual screening and discussion of a YouTube Originals series, Recipe for Change: Amplifying Black Women, produced by SpringHill Company. Like our Sisterhood Suppers, the Recipe for Change episode centered on Black women and cooking for progressive changes while serving self-care. The star-studded dinner party was hosted by Mary J. Blige, Saweetie and Tabitha Brown.
The dinner guests dropped several gems of wisdom that evening. On the show, one dropped gem addressed the misconception about vegan foods, which exclude animals and by-products from the diet. Vegan is often described as a lifestyle and the foods in the diet.
As Tabitha Brown shared, if you eat a potato or tomato, you eat vegan after dinner guest asserted that she doesn’t eat vegan food. Immediately, that statement was rebutted with the fact that fruits and vegetables qualify as vegan foods. We may not realize it, but we all eat vegan foods. “Vegan” has become polarized to describe meals or even people ubiquitously. All in all, the dinner discussion served as a mechanism to unfold opportunities to foster healthier living.
Regarding self-care, the notion of “team no sleep” was turned on for the simple truth: we are doing ourselves and our communities a disservice by not sufficiently resting to be effective and efficient in the work cut out for us. At some point, being drained may grind our efforts to a halt. It’s in our best interest to preserve our minds & bodies, which catalyze revolutionary change to sustain future generations.
In WANDA’s facilitated discussion, there was a shared sentiment that many historically redlined neigborhoods have become sites of “food apartheid,” -- racialized policies that structurally and geographically designed create an obesinogenic environment, setting our communities up for health failures such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. These environments are rich in high-cost or low-quality products and health narratives shaped by food manufacturers; consumers feel like they are left to protect themselves.
The attendees voiced their interest in WANDA offering consumer products with people of color in mind. Also, attendees shared that the current nutrition and healthy climate in the United States do not include non-Western cultures or preferences, especially African diasporan foods.
That’s why WANDA launched a recent national survey to assess the state of food democracy in the United States, recently published in Food Tank. Your participation or amplification of this survey helps to build the groundwork needed for policy change to strengthen our communities. Special thanks to Door Dash for gifts which are being raffled to survey respondents and Sisterhood Supper participants.
Contributing writer: Esu Obu