Edible Entanglements: Community Food Justice Organizations, Race, Environment and Ethics

Arvind Thomas
English
UC Los Angeles

Our project explores the entanglements of food with larger socio-political issues such as racial justice, sustainable nutrition, food insecurity, and environmental ethics in ways that realize UC Los Angeles’s mission to be a public university. The project will enable students to engage with food at both theoretical and practical levels by volunteering with community organizations devoted to ending food insecurity in a marginalized community in Los Angeles. At its core, then, our project seeks to integrate the classroom with a community facing food insecurity. Students—especially those already taking the Minor in Food studies or those enrolled in our own Fall 2025 food-related courses—will work closely with Gwenna Hunter, the first Black woman in the US to establish a plant-based food bank (“Planetary Unity”) that serves fresh vegetables and staple foods to a community with the least access to them. Students as well as faculty will also take part in a one-day conference at which Ms. Hunter and at least five other community-centered food justice organizers (such as Ashinee Reynolds and tribal chief Rawsheed Patton) will share the food-related work that they undertake on behalf of their local communities.

Image Credit: Nikki Ritcher