Online Symposium to Address Community Food Security, Food Justice, Human Rights and Vulnerable Populations During COVID-19

The Falk College’s Department of Nutrition and Food Studies will host “COVID-19-Vulnerable Populations and Food Access: A Food Justice and Human Rights Foundation for Community Food Security” on Wednesday, June 10, from noon to 1:15 p.m. To register in advance for the online symposium, visit the Zoom link.

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.

The program will be moderated by Falk Family Endowed Professor of Food Studies Rick Welsh, chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, who specializes in U.S. food and agriculture policy and rural economic and social development.

Panelists are:

• Anne Bellows, professor and graduate program director of food studies in the Falk College; her area of specialty is a human rights-based approach to food and nutrition security;
• Chaya Charles, assistant teaching professor of nutrition science and dietetics in the Falk College; her area of specialty is dietary intake and nutritional status in adults;
• Rachel Murphy, director of food and nutrition services for the Syracuse City School District; her area of specialty pertains to 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; and
• Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, associate professor and undergraduate program director of food studies in the Falk College; her area of specialty is food and racial justice, labor movements, transnational environmental and agricultural policy.