Media Advisory: Shirley Sherrod to speak at food justice event in Buffalo

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Civil rights movement leader and food justice advocate Shirley Sherrod will discuss food as an economic driver as part of Just Food, Just Communities. The event, organized by the Food Lab in the University at Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning, is designed to engage the community in a conversation about food justice.

Event co-organizers include Grassroots Gardens of Buffalo, Massachusetts Avenue Project, Buffalo Public Schools and the UB Civic Engagement and Public Policy initiative.

When: 4-6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10 (Sherrod’s talk is scheduled to begin at 5:20 p.m.)

Where: King Urban Life Center Church, 938 Genesee St., Buffalo

Media are invited to attend. The on-site contact is David Hill of UB’s Division of University Communications, 716-238-1001.

Why: Just Food, Just Communities will bring together community partners, scholars, students and residents to discuss the links between racial, economic and food injustices, and strategies to address them. The event will include a panel discussion featuring leaders who are transforming Buffalo’s food system from the ground up.

Sherrod co-founded the New Communities Land Trust, a collective farm in Georgia that was owned and operated by black farmers in the 1970s and early ’80s. Her talk is titled “Building a Local Food Economy.”

While food insecurity is difficult to measure, the issue affects many people in Western New York, according to Samina Raja, UB Food Lab director and associate professor of urban and regional planning.

For example, 12 percent of the region’s households are enrolled in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and some 56,000 households in Erie and Niagara counties that lack a vehicle are farther than walking distance from a supermarket, according to Raja’s research.

“The food system does not work for low-income consumers and small- and medium-sized farmers. Healthier food costs more to purchase, and low-income consumers live in neighborhoods where there is limited access to food,” Raja says.

For more information, visit: http://foodsystemsplanning.ap.buffalo.edu/.