Three Fab Food Folks - Live Show
From Left: Latha Swamy - Food System & Policy Director for the City of New Haven, CT, Austin Bryniarski - from the New Haven Food Policy Council, and Genesis Vicente - Food System Administrator for the City of New Haven.
These three fabulous humans may not have been born in New Haven, CT but they are each dedicated to working directly and respectfully with the grassroots communities there to improved the food system and work for social justice. Latha Swamy, is the newly appointed Director of Food System Policy for the City of New Haven, and Genesis Vicente works with her as Food System Administrator. Austin Bryniarski came to New Haven to attend Yale, and unlike many of his fellow students, has become immersed in the city, and currently works on racial and economic equity in food through his appointment on the New Haven Food Policy Council.
This fun trio of food system activists joined host Tagan Engel to talk about everything from their favorite childhood food memories to systemic approaches to ending poverty and hunger. Latha gushes about Indian pulses (lentils) and memories of her mother hand feeding her when she was sick. She speaks of her journey to medical school as a 14 year old, which led her to understand the effects of environmental racism and red lining on people’s health and into the food system change work she is leading now. Genesis dreams of her tia’s delicious Guatemalan black beans and recently graduated from Johnson and Wales culinary school. She studied culinary nutrition and shares her insights on food and health and the importance of meeting people where they are at with food, sharing recipes and cooking skills that connect to their cultural food ways and economic situation. Austin talks about pirogies and his Polish heritage, as well as his personal transformation into understanding racial justice, and how it guides the way he works on food and in community as a white queer man.
Listen in above or by podcast to this live and casual conversation about some fun
(and also serious) stuff about our local and global food system.
In studio at WNHH in New Haven, CT
