Food Studies News
Forests of Food in the City of Syracuse
Prospective students in search of an interesting college major might come across “food studies” and imagine an appealing mix of skills that could lead to a career as a chef, nutritionist or cooking show host. But food studies is actually something quite different. It is one of the fastest-growing fields of study in North America, preparing students for careers in policy analysis, research, marketing, community outreach and more. Syracuse University’s Falk College has taken food studies to new levels of relevance, encompassing everything from food delivery systems to social justice, public health and policy, landscape sustainability, urban design, and human rights.
These days, you’re likely to find food studies students scouring parks and forests for edible plants, accompanied by student researchers from a variety of other disciplines. They are all part of the Syracuse Urban Food Forest Project (SUFFP), an interdisciplinary research initiative between Syracuse University and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF).
Led by Falk College food studies professor Anne Bellows and ESF professors Stewart Diemont (environmental biology) and Matthew Potteiger (landscape architecture), the two-year undertaking examines the connections between ecological and human systems in the urban forests along the City of Syracuse’s southwest side. Poverty, food insecurity and chronic health issues are prevalent along this corridor, but the wooded areas there contain a surprising number of edible plants that can be harvested for human consumption and other purposes.
“This is a project that is about making connections—across the disciplines of ecology, food studies, design, traditional environmental knowledge—and the very fundamental connections between people, food and place,” Potteiger says. “It has opened up opportunities for students from these different fields to collaborate and engage directly with communities.”
The pilot project will assess the existing and potential ecological productivity and community engagement around managing and harvesting edible plants. The team is developing designs for how to increase the availability of wild edible plants as well as shared foraging knowledge about them and public access to them. A longer-term goal is to have connected “edible ecosystems” across Syracuse to benefit city residents, plants, animals and landscapes.
“Interdisciplinary and multi-institutional collaborations are key to resolving societal challenges such as food insecurity, environment and global climate change,” says Interim Vice Chancellor and Provost John Liu. “The collaboration here between Syracuse University and ESF researchers is an excellent example of working together to generate synergy.”
Foraging for Answers
The group’s research seeks to answer a number of questions. What are the best (and worst) practices to employ when managing urban food forests, and to what extent should the community be involved? What funding is necessary to maintain the forests over time? And what lessons can be learned from the urban food forest in Syracuse? The challenges include water access, invasive species, vandalism, contamination and funding, to name a few.
Seed funding from a Syracuse University Collaboration for Unprecedented Success and Excellence (CUSE) grant and an ESF McIntire-Stennis research grant made it possible for the faculty to build interdisciplinary teams to advance their research.
Additional funding came from the Syracuse University Office for Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement (SOURCE). The SOURCE provides grants of up to $5,000 to fund projects designed and implemented by undergraduate students guided by faculty mentors. This year, the SOURCE has also allocated funds for a pilot faculty research assistant grant for faculty mentors to hire undergraduates for remote work that supports their ongoing research. This enabled Bellows to hire food studies students to work as research assistants for the project.
“Including undergraduate and graduate students brings enthusiasm and energy that goes beyond completing assigned tasks and pushes the project beyond our field of vision,” Bellows says. “They tie the field work into their diverse curricula and seamlessly incorporate classroom, research and service in their SUFFP engagement.”
Student Engagement and Research
One research assistant is Lisa Bush ’21, a senior from Canton, Connecticut. “As a food studies major, the idea of having a food forest in Syracuse is inspiring,” Bush says. “It allows people to source locally grown ingredients for home use, encourages community participation and helps bring food to those who are food insecure. The SUFFP also provides a way for the Syracuse community to utilize locally grown ingredients rather than purchasing from an outside source.”
Bush consolidates information, reviews similar projects in other locales and brainstorms ways to get the community involved in SUFFP through school, community and social media. She believes that her work on the project will resonate long after she graduates. “I’ve come to realize that the collaboration of different minds, schools of thought and backgrounds creates an impactful, quality project,” she says. It has opened her eyes to the amount of work and collaboration a community project like this demands. “It’s been an invaluable experience, and as I move forward in my career, I hope the skills, research methods and thought processes I have gained will be put to good use.”
Briana Okebalama ’22, from Alpharetta, Georgia, is majoring in earth sciences through the College of Arts and Sciences and pursuing an integrated learning major in environment, sustainability and policy through the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. “Learning about the food forest has broadened the scientific knowledge related to my major,” she says. “And connecting with the community as a way to address food insecurity has added to my knowledge about environmental policy.”
Okebalama’s role as a student researcher is to expand community outreach and engagement for the project. Working with community partner Antonisha Owens, she created a newsletter containing information about the project’s history and background on products that can be foraged locally. Also included are photos of food foraging walks, recipes and upcoming SUFFP events.
“Having the opportunity to work within the local community is especially important when you consider the privileged environment we inhabit as students,” Okebalama says. “It’s good to step back with an understanding of and appreciation for the community and use it to benefit that same community. With senior year approaching, I feel this has really helped me progress as a student. I’m gaining excellent skills that will also help me build a resume.”
Grace Taylor, an ESF senior majoring in environmental studies, assists in the project by creating interpretive materials like annotated maps, waysides and workshop plans for foraging. “I’m trying to understand what will appeal to the broader community,” she says. “I want my materials to guide those who were initially interested in the project, but I also want them to be useful for those who stumble upon our foraging sites by chance in the years to come.”
An Unusual Introduction to Syracuse
For Marie Claire Bryant, a graduate student pursuing an M.S. in food studies at Syracuse University, the project has unfolded in unexpected ways. Bryant moved to Syracuse after working on urban agricultural projects in Nashville, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and she started working on the project at the height of COVID-19 precautions. While no restaurants or other venues were open, she was still able to participate in foraging, which happens in small groups outdoors. “Being introduced to Syracuse through foraging was really exciting as a food studies student,” she says. “We have found so much naturally growing food that we didn’t expect. One time we came across a large patch of water mint and watercress growing together in a stream. A ton of it! The aroma of the mint hit us suddenly and we realized what we had found: fresh, edible greens growing naturally in an urban forest. People need to know that there is food growing right in their neighborhoods.”
The thrill of discovery is only the beginning. “The next step is learning how to responsibly harvest so that the food source doesn’t disappear, which is a major part of what we hope to instill in the entrepreneurs we work with,” Bryant says. The group has also applied for grants to purchase hundreds of trees to be planted by local youth in conjunction with existing youth empowerment organizations. “As a graduate student, my focus is on land governance, foraging on public land, and the laws and social dynamics that challenge growing food and harvesting on cooperatively owned land. My interest in the project has grown immensely since I got involved, and I am so grateful for this experience.”
Growing Community Connections
Antonisha Owens, an entrepreneur who owns a salon on the South Side of Syracuse, joined the project as a community partner. She learned about the SUFFP from Cimone Jordan, a planner for the City of Syracuse Department of Neighborhood and Business Development, and decided to join the group on one of their many foraging walks. “I was amazed at how many of the ingredients I use in my natural products can be found right outside my door,” Owens says.
After learning how to microbraid her own hair when she was 16, Owens quickly developed a following of loyal customers. She earned a cosmetology license and opened AficaPure Artisan and Hair Clinique, a hair salon and boutique where she styles hair, provides beauty treatments and sells her line of homemade natural beauty products—soaps, scrubs, shampoos, conditioners and body oils.
She loves learning to identify and harvest the plants that grow in local forests, like water mint, burdock root, rose hips, wild basil, paw paw fruit, juneberries and many more. “A lot of the ingredients I use in my beauty products are costly because I want the best quality, so it helps to find them in nature for free,” she points out. Someday, Owens hopes to start a small farm where she can grow her own ingredients. “I want to work together with nature to provide cleaner, safer products in an ethical and humane way.”
Food studies professor Anne Bellows has been amazed at the cooperative spirit of the community partners, students and faculty that has made this undertaking flourish. “The Syracuse Urban Food Forest Project has developed, survived, and is blossoming because of a network of actors and interests that sustains us individually and as a group,” she says. “It is in the synergy of the alternate waves of creativity, insight and productivity that we find inspiration in the pure camaraderie and fun of working together.”
~ A Syracuse University Story by Mary Beth Horsington originally published on March 30, 2021
Food studies student Ethan Tyo publishes a book on plant-based food
Tyo, with help from some friends, just published his first cookbook, “Fetagetaboutit,” in February.
This is his first project as a Food Studies graduate student at Falk College, which took almost two years for him to finish the adventure. Nevertheless, his interests in food and lifestyle have been with him for a long time.
During his undergraduate time at SU’s School of Information Studies, Tyo realized that he had a strong interest in food since 2015 when he was studying abroad in London. He experienced a huge weight loss there and changed to a plant-based diet as a matter of interest. Eventually, he was exposed to “a whole new world of color” and started exploring the journey with food through a different perspective toward understanding the importance of nutrition and lifestyle, he said.
Back then, Tyo was also active on social media platforms and had worked with several global entrepreneurs and food companies to create content and do content planning. Nevertheless, he was not motivated in these works but really hoped to start his own project someday.
“I spent the break between undergrad and grad time trying to think about how I (could) approach the stuff that I was interested in via social media after going through a lot of personal stuff and personal growth,” Tyo said. “And so, I dropped off social media because I really wanted to focus more on, how am I going to approach sharing my work and how I want to shape my career.”
With a strong interest in food and a willingness to promote a healthy lifestyle, Tyo decided to pursue his graduate degree. At Falk College, he said that he can really focus on food systems on a larger scale and see the implications that food has on people. Moreover, he is also eager to dig into the history of food because the food systems have developed and released in such a “fascinating way.”
“I wanted to be someone who creates content that was valuable and something that people would use to help better themselves with,” Tyo said, after working in the field of media for several years. “This cookbook is a way to kind of taking a step toward (solving the puzzle) of ‘I don’t know how to cook, what to eat or even where to start’ when people don’t want to sustain themselves on eating out all the time.”
To Tyo, he perceives this book as a foundational ground for people to be like “Hey, here are some simple recipes and ingredients for plant-based food,” so that people can know where to get them and what to look for in the kitchen.
Divided into different sections, including breakfast, entrees, snacks, and drinks, the book tells the story of Beatmaster Bobby Slay, star chef by day and master DJ by night, as well as his recipes. More notably, besides teaching people how to cook, the book also aims at educating people to eat plant-rich meals and reduce food waste, Tyo said.
And that is about sustainability, something that this cookbook hopes to highlight. It provides readers with tips and tricks not only on grocery shopping and produce storage but also on effectively using food scraps in composting or recipes, the “Happy, Probably” website reads.
Tyo also wants to thank his colleagues for working on this book with him: SU alum Kyle Blaha G’17 brought him a fun, satirical twist to the traditional cookbook with short stories on Bobby’s adventures, meal plans (playlists), and the overall voice of Bobby. The book tries to cover all the essentials that a plant-based kitchen needs to get started. Each recipe also has a song accompaniment so that people can listen when they are cooking or eating. Laura Markley — the graphic designer and a current Ph.D. student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering program — also offered minimal-waste guides and tips.
He will be working with the LaunchPad and other campus partners on the rollout of the book. For Tyo, this cookbook is not the end of his journey with food. It is more like the starting point for him to keep pursuing this career and discovering more about food and, more importantly, the culture and self-identification that lie behind it.
“In my next project, I really want to focus more on my cultural movements and bring them back to this aspect of how I integrate my own cultural understanding and cultural knowledge growth through the work that I do,” Tyo said.
He has been a mentor to other LaunchPad student entrepreneurs working in the creative space and in the food sector and will be a judge for the upcoming Hult Prize with its theme, “Food for Good.” His book will be added to the LaunchPad’s innovation and entrepreneurship collection at SU Libraries in both print and digital versions.
~ A Blackstone LaunchPad story by Kaizhao Zero Lin ‘21, LaunchPad Global Fellow.
Graduate Student Works With Food Policy Council to Combat Rising Food Scarcity Due to COVID
After Gaudé was displaced from their job due to COVID, the late food studies Professor Evan Weissman connected Gaudé with the facilitator for the Syracuse-Onondaga Food Systems Alliance (SOFSA). Weissman was an associate professor in food studies and nutrition at Falk College for eight years before passing away unexpectedly while at home with his family on April 9. His research examined grassroots efforts to address food disparities in urban America.
“Evan had a very genuine and honest and humble way of looking at the world and doing it with such compassion. A lot of people that are involved with SOFSA knew Evan very well. I think we all are trying to do what he would have done in the way he would have done it and try to remember how he thought about things and how he approached them,” Gaudé says.
SOFSA is a new food policy council that sprang into action in response to COVID. “They saw the need to help organize and try to connect people with emergency food,” says Gaudé, who is working with SOFSA to establish an organizational structure while fulfilling the spiraling demand for emergency food. They have been researching other food policy councils, designating leaders and working on the bylaws. Gaudé says they are trying to make sure that social justice and racial justice is embedded within the organization itself. “We can’t achieve any kind of food justice without facing those things,” they says.
SU News sat down with Gaudé to discuss their role with SOFSA and the challenges the Syracuse community faces in mitigating food shortages due to the pandemic.
Q: What are you researching while working with SOFSA?
A: Most of the food policy councils that exist have more of a traditional leadership, like president, secretary, treasurer, co-chair, that sort of thing. Right now, we’re trying to do some research on non-hierarchical leadership or horizontal leadership, just to see if that improves the equity of the operations of the organization. I’m still doing research on that to see if that’s even a thing that people have tried, and if it works the way they think and want it to. We’re still looking and evaluating.
Q: How has the pandemic created more food scarcity?
A: The pandemic has really emphasized and exaggerated the inequities that already existed. We’ve seen all of these standard and popular supply chains really falter. Other avenues like shorter, value or regional supply chains have been able to rethink and redesign how they connect people with food. I think it’s really exciting work to be doing right now, because we have this impetus and this momentum to truly assess the current food system, make changes and start doing things in a more efficient and equitable way.
We’ve also been very cognizant and explicit about the things that we want to include and embed within the core mission of the organization, like systemic racism and the toll it has had in marginalized communities and the food system. You can’t separate the two.
Q: What are some initial challenges?
A: One of the things that we’re struggling with right now is reaching stakeholders with the lived experiences of the situations that we’re trying to address. That’s absolutely essential to have, to have the residents represent themselves. Without their input and voices telling us what they need, then we become just a group of mostly white people trying to do a good thing.
We’ve also been working democratically amongst all of the members and inviting anyone who expresses interest to be a part of it. We are trying to get out as far as we can into the community without physically going out into the community, due to COVID. Inviting people to come to the meetings, to come to the advisory board meetings and help us, critique us, tell us where we could be doing better.
It is a difficult time to be a young organization, because all of the traditional avenues to gain traction, visibility and new membership are not available to us right now. We’ve been getting a lot of input and feedback on our development thus far and trying to find like models that exist just to identify best practices. We’ve been connecting with other established organizations like Syracuse Hope, and with Peter Ricardo at the CNY Food Bank.
Q: What have you learned in this process?
A: I think one thing that I didn’t understand was the importance of food knowledge. It is one thing to pass a bill that says that corner stores need to have a percentage of fresh food, but if the members of the community that shop there don’t necessarily know what to do with it, they’re not going to eat it. For instance I think I’m biased because I cook everything, and if I don’t know, then I’ll look it up. But I’m also not a single parent of four kids with two jobs that doesn’t have time to educate myself on how to cook a rhubarb. It is a privileged thing to be able to afford to destroy a dish to a point where it is inedible. If you’re unable to afford more food, what are you going to feed your family if that happens?
We have been partnering with other organizations, like Jessi Lyons at Brady Farms to brainstorm different events that we could have given the limitations with COVID. I think letting people see the farm, how a carrot really looks out of the ground, and then also pair that with a cooking demo. It shows that cooking is not scary. It is scary until you know how to do it. Once you get past that fear, then it is a lot of fun.
~ A Syracuse University story by Brandon Dyer originally published on March 8, 2021.
Food studies students honor Weissman’s legacy as Lender Center fellows
Among the 2021-22 Lender Center student fellows are two Falk College students: Phoebe Ambrose, a junior food studies and citizenship and civic engagement double major, sustainable food enterprises minor, and member of the Renée Crown University Honors Program, and; Avalon Gupta VerWiebe, a first-year graduate student in food studies Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics.
“My passion in food studies started with food justice and has evolved from there,” says VerWiebe. “In my spare time I cook, ferment and organize locally around food and food systems. This fellowship offered an opportunity to get to know the local food organizing work happening in Syracuse and to explore a mechanism of the food movement through the food policy council, SOFSA. The opportunity to meet folks in the community and elsewhere who are passionate about the same stuff I am but are coming from a diverse array of spaces in the food system is incredible valuable, and will absolutely help shape my future career by exposing me to new ideas and people.”
More on the Lender Center student fellows.
Falk College’s Unsung Hero Evan Weissman
When the 36th annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee announced the 2021 Unsung Hero Award winners, Falk College was pleased to see that Evan Weissman was to be honored posthumously.
Weissman passed away on April 9, 2020, but his passion and work with social initiatives continues to serve as an inspiration for many.
The Unsung Hero awards are given to community members, students, faculty and staff who have made positive impacts on the lives of others but are not widely recognized for their contributions. The awards were created to honor Dr. King’s vision of creating positive change in a troubled world.
Weissman grew up in Syracuse and was passionate about his community. He joined the faculty of Falk College in 2012 and played a key role in creating the food studies program, for which he was the undergraduate director. He was also involved in Syracuse University’s Aging Studies Institute and the Maxwell School’s Department of Geography as an affiliated faculty member. Weissman put participatory learning and engagement at the forefront of his teaching and was also focused on equity, diversity and inclusion.
“As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. accomplished through his teachings and life example, Evan Weissman similarly challenged his students to create positive change, inspiring them and all who worked with him to create that change through his passionate and tireless leadership and example,” says Rick Welsh, professor and chair of the Falk College’s Department of Nutrition and Food Studies.
Weissman’s lasting impact on his community can be observed through his countless contributions to various organizations, movements and publications. He worked with My Lucky Tummy, WAER’s City Limits project, Syracuse-Onondaga Food Systems Alliance, and countless others as an expert on food justice. “A tireless advocate for equity in the food system, his local work continues to serve as a national best practices model for bringing food justice to communities across urban America,” says Welsh.
“Professor Weissman had an unwavering commitment to social justice and worked through both scholarship and practice to achieve more just local food systems. As a mentor, he imparted a strong belief that revolutionary food systems change is possible. I share the recurring question Dr. Weissman asked his students and himself: ‘How can we use food as a tool for social change?’” says Welsh.
The award winners will be recognized at the 36th annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration. The event will be held online on Sunday, Jan. 31, at 7 p.m. featuring keynote speaker Ruby Bridges. Registration for the celebration is open to all and available on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration website. This years other Unsung Hereos include Bobbierre Heard, Dr. Frederick C. Gilbeaux, and Sameeha Saied ’21.
~ Adapted from a Syracuse University story by Whitney Welbaum ’23 published on Monday, January 25, 2021.
Students sought for 2020-22 Lender Fellowships
Applications are now being accepted for students interested in being 2020-22 Lender Fellows. An information session will be held October 1, and applications are due October 15. The Lender Student Fellowship carries on the vision and commitment of Professor Evan Weissman to advance food justice in Syracuse. Weissman, associate professor of food studies and nutrition in Falk College, died unexpectedly April 9. Shortly before he passed, Weissman was awarded the Lender Faculty Fellowship; he wanted to examine if the food systems in Syracuse were meeting the needs of the community, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In collaboration and consultation with Falk College and local food system representatives, the Lender Center chose Professor Jonnell Robinson to carry on the Faculty Fellowship in Weissman’s name. Five Lender Student Fellows will engage in research, community engagement, dialogue and reflection to inform local efforts to create a more equitable, sustainable and inclusive food system in Central New York. Working in partnership with the Syracuse Onondaga Food Systems Alliance (SOFSA)—a newly created food policy council—and Professor Robinson, student fellows will conduct participatory action research to promote community-driven food policies and practices.
Students from any discipline are encouraged to apply to serve as a Lender Student Fellow. The Fellowships last for two years and will allow students to engage in collaborative research led by a faculty member.
Visit the October 1st information session event page.
Food Studies Fall 2020 Newsletter
Nearly 10 years since the first food studies course was offered in Falk College, extensive class offerings, growing numbers of students majoring and minoring in food studies, an expanding list of community partners, and increased research funding are just some of the many strengths that define the food studies program at Syracuse University today.
In our classrooms and teaching kitchens, as well as side-by-side in the community with our valued partners, our students gain a deep understanding of food policy and governance, gastronomy, health outcomes of food systems, human nutrition, and food access. They also hone marketable skillsets in research, data collection, and analysis, as well as food preparation and presentation. Careers for food studies alumni are as wide-ranging as the issues food studies seeks to address.
As you read more about our program’s research, scholarship, news and more from students, faculty and staff in food studies, we hope you will stay connected with us. From visiting campus, guest lecturing in a class, supervising an internship, or hiring our graduates, we welcome your involvement. Please stay informed at falk.syr.edu and join us as our first decade continues.
Reining in High Sodium Diets by Raising Awareness
The prevalence of high blood pressure can be attributed to excess salt in the diets of Americans, beginning with what children eat in school, says chef William Collins, a culinary specialist with the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies in Syracuse University’s Falk College. Collins has worked as an executive chef for 25 years and has taught introduction to culinary arts at Falk for the past 12 years.
Today, the average American consumes an estimated 3,400 milligrams of sodium each day, more than one and a half times the recommended limit. Collins recently worked with the Onondaga County Health Department to host a workshop for a cross section of food service staff at schools and colleges in the county. The workshop (which took place before social distancing began) offered recipes, hands-on instruction and seminars for reducing the use of salt in meals served to children and young adults. “I’m a believer that our palates are somewhat trained, even at a young age, to eat what we’re accustomed to,” Collins says. “And if we’re used to having an abundance of salt in our food, that’s the way we’re going to eat for the rest of our lives.”
We reached out to Collins to ask how people can help limit their intake of salt while still producing delicious meals.
Why would you add salt to a dish?
There are two main flavor enhancers in the culinary world. One is salt, and the other is acid. I don’t ever want something to taste salty, and I don’t ever want something to taste sour. But the addition of either of those things to a dish can perk up the flavors that are already there.
Are cooks the source of the overabundance of sodium in the typical American diet?
It really isn’t what we’re putting in our food—it is what the manufacturers are putting in it. That’s where most of our sodium comes from: prepackaged foods and the manufacturing process. For example, look at canned tomatoes or diced tomatoes in water. The sodium content is excessive. Products that are labeled as “no salt added” contain one-tenth of the sodium.
What strategy can a home cook can use to reduce the sodium in a dish?
The addition method is when you add things that are lower in sodium to offset the sodium. For example, if you had a recipe for a marinara sauce that called for two cans of tomatoes, but instead you add some fresh tomatoes. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but by doing something as simple as that, you’ve taken the sodium content of those tomatoes and you’ve cut it in half by just adding fresh tomatoes.
Why is this especially a problem for institutions that are cooking for significant populations of children/students?
With institutional cooking, cooks are typically looking for how can they make the job efficient as possible. Opening cans and dumping them in and making sauces out of these canned products is often the best scenario. It is important for cooks to read the labels on products they are using. When I visited various kitchens in the Syracuse City School District, I discovered some easy changes that can be made. For instance, all of the butter they were using was salted. The question is: Why are you allowing a manufacturer to dictate how much sodium is going into your recipe just because you’re adding some butter? It is OK to eat butter occasionally, but why have sodium in it? Why shouldn’t you control the sodium? And something as simple as switching from salted to unsalted butter is a matter of awareness.
I think the hardest thing is convincing the actual workers who are preparing the food. They are worried that their job is just going to get harder. I can help them see—based on my experience—that not only can they reduce sodium, but they can make their lives easier at the same time. That is why this this workshop was successful for the Syracuse school district, which is working very hard to reduce sodium levels.
In the workshop, I modified one of my original sauces that I used to serve in restaurants. I just looked at it differently and was aware of what I was putting into it. I took a barbecue sauce and potentially reduced the sodium by 95 percent. I thought it was still delicious. The last seminar that I did was sort of a flavor burst looking at spices, concentrating on Southeast Asia. We were doing a lot of curries, and I was showing them how you can build flavors—using fresh herbs, using spice, using citrus—to make a dish really pop.
Could a shift in institutional cooking help influence a reduction of salt used in manufacturing?
The CDC’s aim in supporting these health department initiatives is to reduce sodium in food served to children and to inspire institutions to contact the representatives of these large manufacturers and say, “Can’t we get something that’s lower in sodium? Can’t we get something with no salt added?” And that is what you are starting to see. Ten years ago, you could not get no-salt-added ketchup in the grocery store, but it’s there now. It’s important to raise awareness of what is in these cans that we open and dump into things. And I think if everybody was a little bit more aware and demanded some changes from the manufacturers, they would give us what we want. We just need enough people to ask for it.
~ Brandon Dyer
A Syracuse University Story published on July 30, 2020.
Online June 10 symposium to address vulnerable populations during COVID-19
Falk College’s Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at Syracuse University will host an online symposium, “COVID-19-Vulnerable Populations and Food Access: A Food Justice and Human Rights Foundation for Community Food Security,” on June 10, 12:00-1:15 p.m.
The coronavirus pandemic has uncovered failings in our approach to emergency food programs such as subsidized school feeding. It has also revealed an alarming lack of support for underpaid, under-protected, and under-acknowledged food system workers, who are now labeled essential in the face of a crisis. A human rights-based approach to food justice recognizes both equality and compensation for social marginalization and discrimination. “By placing food access within a legal framework, governments can be held accountable for developing critical policies and processes focused on the rights, needs, and political participation of vulnerable populations,” says Professor Anne Bellows, one of the primary organizers of the event.
Moderator:
Rick Welsh
Chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies
Area of Specialty: U.S. food and agriculture policy and rural economic and social development.
Panelists:
Anne C Bellows
Area of Specialty: Human rights-based approach to food and nutrition security.
Chaya Charles
Area of Specialty: Dietary intake and nutritional status in adults.
Rachel Murphy
Presenting: How the Syracuse City School District School Food Authority implemented emergency feeding services in the midst of an unprecedented situation by leveraging USDA flexibilities, community partnerships and food system changes.
Laura Anne Minkoff-Zern
Area of Specialty: Food and racial justice, labor movements, transnational environmental and agricultural policy.
Food studies students honored for excellence, achievement
As it does each year, the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies recognizes its students with awards for outstanding achievements in academics, research, service and other areas of scholarship.
This year, on Friday, May 8th 2020, The Department of Nutrition and Food Studies united virtually to present awards to our undergraduate and graduate students and to celebrate all their significant accomplishments over the past academic year.
This meeting was a modification to the usual in-person end of the year ceremony which was converted to a virtual ceremony this year in order to manage the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 50 members of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies along with their families and friends, came together to attend the ceremony. The NFS awardees were celebrated for their wide range of impressive academic and community engagement accomplishments.
They have made great contributions in their areas of excellence, and we look forward to hearing about the value they contribute to the communities where they live and work. To all of our students, and especially the Class of 2020, we know you are ready to embrace the world that needs all you have to offer!
Award winners in the Food Studies program:
Chef’s Prize – Edward Crossman
This is awarded to a Food Studies major or minor who demonstrates exceptional ability in the culinary arts. This ability should also include food justice and community engagement goals of the Food Studies Program.
Food Studies Research Award – Maggie Toczko
This is awarded to a Food Studies major or minor who demonstrates exceptional ability in the culinary arts. This ability should also include food justice and community engagement goals of the Food Studies Program.
Food Studies Justice Award – Deborah Orieta
This is awarded to a Food Studies major or minor who demonstrates the ability to successfully address food justice-related issues through a variety of mediums.
Food Studies Community Engagement Award – Assata Cradle-Morgan
This is awarded to a Food Studies major or minor who demonstrates the ability to create or implement progressive food-based initiatives that engage diverse politics locally, nationally or internationally.
Food Studies Culture and Commensality Award – Neena Hussey
This is awarded is given to the Food Studies major who has expanded the Food Studies program to new audiences by sharing food knowledge and practice through social activism
Roseane do Socorro Gonçalves Viana Human Rights Awards:
Best Undergraduate Paper – Sierra Endreny
Best Graduate Papers – Chanel Gaude, Elizabeth Pickard, Gabriel Roth
This award is given to the best undergraduate and graduate papers on the human right to food, nutrition, and/or health. Roseane do Socorro Gonçalves Viana, Brazilian nutritionist and right to adequate food activist and writer, left a powerful message of hope and belief in the essential goodness of each and every person, of the need to take on our individual and collective responsibilities to ensure the welfare and dignity of all and for each and everyone, that all struggles are important and must be respected, and, most of all, that the voices of the affected must be heard.
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