UPDATE: See below to watch the presentations from these sessions.

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How might you eat in ways that are in alignment with your social and theological values?

Earth Day 2023 is an especially appropriate time to consider that question with a discussion around ethical responses to food injustice. St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Washington, DC will be hosting Methodist pastor and theologian the Rev. Dr. Christopher Carter who will keynote a daylong examination of Faith and Food: A Christian Ethical Response to Food Injustice on Saturday, April 22nd.

The event is free and open to all from all faiths (and those with no faith affiliation). You can register by clicking on the QR code in the poster below. If you can’t make it to DC, the event will be livestreamed.

I wrote a review of Christopher’s book The Spirit of Soul Food last fall, and I began by noting that while our food production system has been broken for a long time, many of us have only touched the surface of the problem and seldom in ways that reach across racial and class lines to address systemic issues. Thankfully, my lack of comprehension about an ethical response to food injustice and the impact of our broken production system on communities of color was brought home to me in Christopher’s book.

Christopher gives a short introduction to the program in this St. Alban’s video:

The Spirit of Soul Food: Race, Faith, and Food Justice merges a history of Black American foodways with a Christian ethical response to food injustice. Panelists will address public policy responses to the challenges of food injustice and the very personal issue of how to eat rightfully.

I’m honored to be moderating the “Shaping Public Policy to Promote Food Justice” panel which will feature Aysha Akhtar, MD, MPH, CEO of the Center for Contemporary Sciences; Pamela Hess, Executive Director of the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture; and Danielle Nierenberg, President of Food Tank. 

As you can see in the poster below, there are a number of other outstanding speakers scheduled for the day.

Full disclosure: I am a member of the Endowed Memorial Lecture Series committee, the group responsible for bringing Christopher Carter to DC and for organizing the day’s events. More important disclosure: I am also very excited about this event!

I hope to see you there!

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UPDATE: The morning and afternoon sessions have now been posted on the St. Alban’s parish YouTube channel, and I include them below. The Rev. Dr. Christopher Carter’s keynote address begins the morning session. Our policy panel which I moderated and which featured Dr. Aysha Akhtar, Pamela Hess, and Danielle Nierenberg, opens the afternoon session. These are posted as they were livestreamed.

More to come…

DJB

Photo by Anya Bell on Unsplash