WANDA Premieres "We Belong at the Table"

IamWANDA org
3 days ago
3 min read

A Cinematic Musical Tribute Honoring the Black Women Who Nourished America

Premieres Friday, July 4, 2026, at 7:00 a.m. ET on YouTube

As the United States commemorates its 250th anniversary, WANDA (Women Advancing Nutrition, Dietetics and Agriculture) invites the nation to remember a story too often left out of history: Who fed America?

For more than 250 years, Black women have cultivated the land, preserved seeds, prepared meals, advanced nutrition science, sustained families, organized communities, and fueled movements for freedom. Yet their contributions have rarely occupied a central place in America's national narrative.

To commemorate both America's 250th anniversary and WANDA's 10th anniversary, WANDA will premiere "We Belong at the Table," an original cinematic musical tribute written by Founder & CEO Tambra Raye Stevenson, on Friday, July 4, 2026, at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

The film honors generations of Black women whose leadership transformed food into an instrument of health, culture, resilience, and democracy.

Why Release It on Independence Day?

Every Independence Day, America reflects on the ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. This year, WANDA asks the nation to broaden that reflection.

Before America became a nation, there were women tending gardens they did not own. Before "Food as Medicine" became a conference theme, there were grandmothers making healing broths, herbal teas, and nourishing meals that sustained families, movements, and hope.

Their labor fed America. Their leadership helped build America. Their stories deserve to be part of America's story.

"We Belong at the Table" is both a tribute and a reminder that the history of American democracy cannot be fully understood without recognizing the Black women who nourished communities, preserved culture, advanced nutrition science, and helped movements flourish around kitchen tables, church suppers, family gardens, and community meals.

Music That Moves a Movement

Throughout history, music has carried movements forward. The spirituals sung by enslaved Africans carried coded messages of liberation. We Shall Overcome became the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. South Africa's freedom songs united people against apartheid. Across the world, music has preserved memory, strengthened identity, and inspired collective action.

WANDA believes food deserves its own anthem. "We Belong at the Table" uses music to reconnect Americans with a fuller history of the nation's food system; one that recognizes food as more than nourishment. It is heritage. It is culture. It is leadership. It is democracy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wel4vq8au0

Honoring America's Food Sheroes

The song celebrates an extraordinary lineage of Black women whose work transformed recipes into resistance, gardens into freedom, and meals into movements. Featured throughout the tribute are Jessica B. Harris, Harriet Tubman, Evelyn Crayton, Toni Tipton Martin, Flemmie Kittrell, Edna Lewis, Carla Hall, Georgia Gilmore, Karen Washington, Fannie Lou Hamer, Leah Chase, Lena Richard, Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, Psyche Williams-Forson, and Tambra Raye Stevenson.

The cinematic video features Black women and girls across generations, symbolizing the passing of knowledge from grandmother to granddaughter and reminding viewers that every generation inherits both a legacy and a responsibility.

A Love Letter—and a Call Forward

For Tambra Raye Stevenson, the project is deeply personal.

"Before America became a nation, there were women tending gardens they did not own. Before 'Food as Medicine' became a conference theme, there were grandmothers making healing broths and herbal teas. We created We Belong at the Table as a love letter to the women whose hands nourished a nation, even when history overlooked them. As America celebrates 250 years, we have an opportunity to tell a fuller story—one where food is recognized not only as nourishment, but as heritage, belonging, leadership, and democracy."

As WANDA enters its second decade, the video reflects the organization's enduring mission to advance Health. Heritage. Humanity. Through initiatives such as the Sisterhood Supper, WANDA Academy, the Food Bill of Rights, and Food Democracy, WANDA continues building a future where communities have both a seat at the table and a voice in shaping the food system.

Because the next chapter of America will not only be written by those who hold office.

It will also be written by those who gather around the table.