WANDA CEO SPEAKS at the 2026 NAACP National Convention

From Food Access to Food Governance: Building a Nation Rooted in Health

WASHINGTON, D.C. — At a time when America spends more on health care than any other nation while continuing to experience rising rates of chronic disease, food insecurity, and health inequities, one question has become increasingly urgent:

How do we move beyond treating disease to cultivating health?

That question will be at the center of the Equitable Food Systems session at the NAACP Health Summit: We the People: A Nation Rooted in Health during the 2026 NAACP National Convention in Chicago.

Serving as this year's delegate, WANDA Founder and CEO Tambra Stevenson, MPH, MA, who also serves as NAACP DC Branch Health Chair, will moderate a distinguished panel featuring:

• Ruby Ferguson, Senior Director of Community Engagement, Greater Chicago Food Depository

• Tyler Yarbrough, Director of Mississippi Delta Programs, Partnerships for a Healthier America

• Erika Allen, Founder and CEO, Urban Growers Collective

  
  

Together, they will examine how communities can strengthen health through food sovereignty, community food governance, local leadership, and policies that place prevention, not crisis management, at the center of our national health agenda.

Why This Conversation Matters

America stands at a crossroads.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, six in ten U.S. adults live with at least one chronic disease, while four in ten have two or more. Chronic diseases, including heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and certain cancers, remain among the leading causes of death and disability and account for the vast majority of health care spending. These trends are not evenly distributed.

Black Americans continue to experience disproportionately higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, maternal mortality, and food insecurity, reflecting generations of structural inequities in housing, education, wealth, environmental conditions, and food access. Research has consistently shown that where a person lives can influence life expectancy as much as genetics or clinical care.

Yet despite these realities, our health system continues to devote significantly more resources to treating disease than preventing it.

"The status quo is broken," Stevenson said. "For decades, we've invested in managing illness after it appears rather than designing communities where health can flourish from the beginning. Health should not begin in the hospital. It should begin in our neighborhoods, our schools, our farms, our kitchens, and our policies."

Food Systems Are Health Systems

The relationship between food and health extends far beyond individual choice.

Food systems influence economic opportunity, educational outcomes, workforce productivity, environmental sustainability, and civic participation. They determine whether children have the nutrition they need to learn, whether older adults can age with dignity, and whether communities have the infrastructure necessary to thrive.

Increasingly, national organizations, including the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, have emphasized the importance of addressing nutrition, food security, and social conditions as foundational components of health.

This growing movement recognizes an essential truth: Food systems are health systems.

Why Food Governance Matters

For too long, discussions about food have centered primarily on access. While access remains essential, communities across the country are increasingly asking a broader question:

Who gets to shape the food system itself?

Community food governance shifts decision-making closer to the people most affected by those decisions. It brings residents, farmers, educators, health professionals, local businesses, faith leaders, youth, and policymakers together to co-create food systems that reflect community priorities rather than external interests.

This approach moves beyond food charity toward long-term food sovereignty, the ability of communities to determine what food is grown, how it is distributed, who benefits economically, and how health is cultivated across generations.

"Food is not simply a commodity," Stevenson explained. "Food is infrastructure. It is public health. It is economic development. It is environmental stewardship. And ultimately, it is democracy in action."

WANDA's Vision: A Food Bill of Rights

For nearly a decade, WANDA has worked at the intersection of nutrition, public health, agriculture, education, and civic engagement to expand opportunities for women and girls of African descent across the food system.

This work has culminated in the development of the Food Bill of Rights, a framework that affirms every person's right to nutritious and culturally meaningful food, nutrition education, transparent food information, healthy environments, community participation in food policy, and access to food as medicine.

Rather than viewing food solely through the lens of hunger relief, the Food Bill of Rights frames nourishment as essential civic infrastructure that supports health, educational attainment, economic mobility, and democratic participation.

"When communities have a voice in shaping their food systems, they build more than healthier diets," Stevenson said. "They build trust. They build resilience. They build belonging. They build democracy."

A National Conversation at a Defining Moment

The NAACP Health Summit comes at a pivotal time as policymakers, health systems, researchers, and community organizations continue reimagining what an equitable health system should look like.

The summit's theme, "We the People: A Nation Rooted in Health," reflects an important shift away from reactive care toward prevention, community leadership, and policies that address the root causes of inequity.

Opening plenary speakers include Uché Blackstock, Congressman Jonathan Jackson, and additional national leaders from medicine, public health, philanthropy, and policy. Sessions throughout the day will explore equitable food systems, reparations, access to care, public trust, trauma-informed care, community violence prevention, and health equity across multiple sectors.

Join the Conversation

NAACP Health Summit: We the People: A Nation Rooted in Health

Date: Friday, July 17, 2026

Time: 9:00 a.m.–1:35 p.m.

Location: McCormick Place

The Equitable Food Systems session will challenge participants to think beyond emergency food assistance and ask a larger question:

What would it look like to build food systems worthy of a healthy democracy?

As Stevenson prepares to moderate the discussion, she offers one final reflection:

"Food has always shaped the future of nations. The question before us is whether we will continue investing in systems that produce preventable disease or whether we will cultivate systems that allow every community to flourish. I believe the next chapter of American health begins when we recognize that democracy doesn't stop at the ballot box; it continues at the table."

Further Reading

For readers interested in the historical and personal reflections that inspired this conversation, read Tambra Stevenson's companion essay, "From Cedar Hill to Rochester: The Next American Revolution Begins at the Table," published in her Bloom Where We Belong Substack. In the essay, Stevenson traces her Fourth of July journey from Frederick Douglass's home in Anacostia to Rochester, New York, weaving together history, belonging, democracy, food sovereignty, and the unfinished promise of American freedom. Also enjoy the bonus song at the end of the essay.