Food studies students honor Weissman’s legacy as Lender Center fellows

 

Portraits of Phoebe Ambrose and Avalon Gupta VerWiebe
Lender Center student fellows Phoebe Ambrose and Avalon Gupta VerWiebe.
This past fall, the Lender Center selected the six student fellows who will ensure that the late Evan Weissman’s passion for advancing food justice in Syracuse will live on. Weissman, associate professor in food studies and nutrition in Falk College, passed away unexpectedly in April.

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.