WANDA Joins National Call to Unite Hunger and Public Health Advocates for a Better Food System

“Families should not have to choose between enough food and healthy food.”

That message sat at the center of a national conversation this month as WANDA Founder and CEO Tambra Raye Stevenson, MPH, MA, PhD candidate, joined leading voices from across the anti-hunger, nutrition, and public health sectors to confront a growing crisis in America’s food system on May 28th webinar entitled "Finding Common Ground: Uniting Advocates to Fight for a Better Food System."

At a moment when food insecurity is rising, SNAP faces historic cuts, and chronic disease continues to devastate communities, the conversation challenged advocates to move beyond division and toward a more united vision for food justice.

Speaking alongside leaders from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Hunger Free America, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Global Food Institute at George Washington University, WANDA joins the webinar emerged from a forthcoming editorial in the American Journal of Public Health titled “Call to Action: Anti-hunger and Public Health Communities Must Find Common Ground to Advance a More Just and Nutritious Food System in the United States.” The paper warns that advocates can no longer afford fragmentation while public health systems, nutrition research, and food assistance programs face mounting threats.

The editorial notes that food insecurity in the United States rose from 34 million people in 2021 to 48 million people in 2024, including 14 million children. It also highlights how concentrated corporate power, weakened public health infrastructure, and political polarization continue to shape inequitable food environments.

For Stevenson, the issue is deeply personal.

“As a daughter of the Heartland and former Extension Agent who has seen both hunger and chronic disease shape families and communities, I know this is not simply a policy conversation,” Stevenson shared.

“This is about dignity. This is about belonging. This is about whether communities most impacted by these systems are trusted enough to help redesign them.”

Through WANDA (Women Advancing Nutrition, Dietetics, and Agriculture), Stevenson has spent the past decade building what she calls a “food democracy movement” rooted in culture, healing, leadership, and community voice. Rather than treating nutrition, food access, agriculture, and public health as separate silos, WANDA approaches them as interconnected systems tied to identity, history, and power.

During the national panel, Stevenson emphasized that communities most affected by hunger and diet-related disease must move from being “consulted” to becoming co-designers and decision-makers in shaping food policy and health solutions. She pointed to WANDA’s own community-centered work as an example.

From Sisterhood Suppers that transform farms, restaurants, and gathering spaces into sites of healing and civic dialogue, to WANDA Scholars supporting the next generation of nutrition leaders across the African diaspora, the organization has intentionally centered lived experience as expertise.

“Too often, policy is created for communities instead of with communities,” Stevenson said. “But the people closest to the pain are often closest to the solutions.”

That philosophy reflects the broader argument advanced in the AJPH editorial. The paper calls for anti-hunger and public health advocates to unite around shared priorities including protecting SNAP and WIC, strengthening nutrition security, investing in research, improving healthy food access, and addressing the social determinants of health. The article also urges organizations to center people with lived experience in decision-making processes and public leadership.

For WANDA, this moment represents both a warning and an opportunity. At a time when conversations around “Make America Healthy Again” dominate headlines, Stevenson believes the country must confront a deeper question: Who gets to shape the future of health, food, and wellbeing in America?

“We cannot build a healthier nation while ignoring the wisdom, culture, and realities of the very communities carrying the greatest burdens,” Stevenson said. “Food is not just fuel. It is memory. It is identity. It is democracy.”

As WANDA approaches its 10th anniversary, the organization continues to expand its work at the intersection of food as medicine, media, culture, and leadership development through initiatives like WANDA Academy, WANDA Scholars, WANDA’s World, and the Food Bill of Rights movement. And in this increasingly polarized political climate, Stevenson says coalition-building is no longer optional.

“The future belongs to movements that can bridge public health, agriculture, culture, storytelling, and community power,” she said. “Because no single organization can solve this alone.”

Join the Movement

WANDA invites advocates, funders, educators, policymakers, healthcare leaders, and community members to help build a more just and nutritious food system rooted in dignity, culture, and collective wellbeing.

Support the next generation of food leaders through the WANDA Scholars Program, partner with WANDA Academy, attend WANDA Week, or join the growing Food Freedom movement advocating for healthier and more equitable communities. Because healthy food should not be a privilege. It should be a right. Learn more at WANDA.