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Food Expert to Share Healthier Eating Message, Demonstrations in Kalamazoo

Kalamazoo Valley Community College courtesy photo

On Friday and Saturday, April 7-8, Kalamazoo Valley Community College hosts the Kalamazoo Foodways Symposium, and the keynote speaker is Toni Tipton-Martin, an award-winning food and nutrition journalist and activist who runs a foundation dedicated to food-justice issues and healthy living. She speaks at 6 p.m. Friday at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. It is free, open to the public and does not require registration. (Click on the icon to hear an interview with her now, with a longer version below it.)

"We all have a right to healthy, good food, and African-Americans have traditionally practiced healthy, holistic eating back in Africa," said Tipton-Martin, who has been a guest judge on Bravo's "Top Chef" and been honored for her outreach work with First Lady Michelle Obama that promotes healthy living.

In an interview that will air during Friday's Morning Edition and All Things Considered, she spoke to WMUK's Earlene McMichael about her upcoming visit, as well as her efforts to advance healthy cooking for all Americans and to honor both African-American and African cooking styles. 

Now we're victims of the packaged and processed food industry which dominate our communities, so that we are now far away from our ancestral way of eating - Toni Tipton-Martin

She told McMichael that African-Americans, once arriving in America from Africa, moved away from their ancestral healthy eating following "the period of enslavement where our food resources were limited" and thus they "developed a particular kind of style, the soul style," of food preparation, where fried foods are common.

"Now we're victims of the packaged and processed food industry which dominate our communities, so that we are now far away from our ancestral way of eating," said Tipton-Martin.
 
She said this is what fuels her passion to ensure that all Americans consume a diet similar to that of Africans, one which is high in legumes like beans and nuts, brown rice, whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and less emphasis on meat.
 

LONG-ONLINE-FOODLADY-040717.mp3
Longer interview (19 mins.)

In addition to her keynote address on Friday, Tipton-Martin will make two other appearances at this weekend's Kalamazoo Food Symposium. From 3-4:30 p.m. Friday, she participates in a panel discussion titled "What Can Historical Foodways Teach Us About How to Create a Sustainable and Equitable Food System for Today and the Future?" It takes place at KVCC's Culinary & Allied Health Building at 418 E. Walnut St. in downtown Kalamazoo. 

Then, twice on Saturday at the Culinary & Allied Health Building, she will be demonstrating cooking heritage recipes. The first demonstration is 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; the second one runs from 1 to 2:30 p.m. 

Officials say the general public is invited to attend the panel discussion, cooking demonstrations and keynote address. All are free.

Tipton-Martin is the author of "The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks," featuring material from 150 of her collection of 300 rare cookbooks. She told McMichael that she will release another book in 2018. "Jubilee" will tell the story of how African-Americans used food to move into the middle-class, Tipton-Martin said.

In addition to writing, Tipton-Martin operates a foundation. The SANDE Youth Project is dedicated to being "a grassroots outreach to improve the lives of vulnerable families," its website says.

Its signature events are The Children's Picnic A Real Food Fair, and theSoul Summit:A Conversation about Race, Identity, Power and Food.

(To learn about Kalamazoo Valley Community College's Culinary Arts & Sustainable Food Systems degree program, click here.)