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Ten Years of WANDA, Told by the Village
- IamWANDA org
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Food and health leaders reflect on a decade of WANDA and we’re inviting the community to add its voice.
Ten years of impact can be counted in programs launched, policies influenced, scholars supported, meals shared, partnerships formed, and people reached. But sometimes the clearest measure is simpler: What do the people who walked alongside you remember?
As WANDA celebrates its 10th anniversary, leaders from across food, nutrition, health, academia, business, and community practice are sharing what the organization has meant to them and why its work remains necessary. The new anniversary video, “Leaders Congratulate WANDA for its 10th Anniversary,” gathers those reflections into a collective thank-you to an organization founded in 2016 to help women and girls of African descent lead across nutrition, dietetics, agriculture, and health.
Among the leaders participating in WANDA’s anniversary reflections are Ambassasor Ertharin Cousin, former World Food Program Director and April Love, Esq of Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic—voices representing the kind of cross-sector village WANDA has sought to build between food, healthcare, research, entrepreneurship, and community.
Their congratulations arrive at an important moment. WANDA enters its second decade expanding work that ranges from culturally grounded nutrition education and maternal Food as Medicine to Sisterhood Suppers, WANDA Scholars, food policy advocacy, and WANDA’s World, its emerging children’s wellbeing and nutrition edutainment platform. WANDA has supported more than 34 women in the United States and Nigeria through education and leadership pathways, while its current Give 8/28 campaign is focused on nourishing the next generation of healthy eaters, readers, and leaders.
For founder and CEO Tambra Raye Stevenson, WANDA’s 10th anniversary is first and foremost an opportunity to thank the people who helped carry the organization from an idea into a growing movement.
“WANDA would not be celebrating 10 years without the village that has poured into this work with their time, talent, and treasure,” Stevenson said. “From volunteers and advisors to scholars, speakers, funders, partners, educators, health professionals, farmers, entrepreneurs, and community members, every contribution helped us grow. This anniversary belongs to all of us.”
Over the past decade, WANDA’s journey has been shaped by stakeholders who opened doors, shared expertise, made introductions, funded programs, hosted gatherings, mentored emerging leaders, amplified the mission, and trusted WANDA to experiment with new ways of connecting food, culture, health, and leadership.
That support has taken many forms. Some people gave financial resources. Others offered a room, a microphone, a meal, a recommendation, a partnership, a lesson, a late-night phone call, or simply the encouragement to keep going. Together, those acts of generosity became the infrastructure behind WANDA’s impact.
As Stevenson reflects on the organization’s larger purpose, she says the goal has always been to create more space for women and girls to lead and to recognize the people already nourishing communities in ways that are too often overlooked.
“We celebrate women who use food to transform lives and work toward a more equitable food future and build healthy communities,” Stevenson said. “And as we enter our next decade, we want to honor the people who helped make that future possible.”
Now WANDA wants to hear from the rest of the village.
Did WANDA introduce you to a collaborator, mentor, opportunity, idea, or community? Did you attend a Sisterhood Supper, WANDA Week event, training, webinar, or gathering? Did WANDA influence how you think about food, culture, health, leadership, or belonging? Were you a partner, scholar, volunteer, speaker, donor or simply someone who has been cheering from the sidelines?
It can be a short written reflection, photo, voice note, or video. And if your WANDA story is simply, “Happy 10th anniversary—keep growing,” we want that too. Because after ten years, WANDA’s story is no longer Tambra’s story alone. It belongs to the women who found one another, the partners who opened doors, the communities that gathered around the table, and the next generation of Food Sheroes preparing to lead.
Watch the anniversary video, then add your voice to the story. To submit a WANDA impact story or 10th-anniversary message, email hello@ iamwanda.org. Here’s to the first 10 years and to what we grow together next.
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