Recent statistics have revealed that Southern states have some of the highest rates of hypertension, diabetes, and other obesity-related illnesses, and that a disproportionate number of people of color are plagued with these illnesses.
IIn 2008 and 2009 Bryant will be focusing a great deal of his professional energies on the Southern Organic Kitchen Project. As one way of addressing the rise of chronic illnesses in historically-excluded urban communities in the South, Bryant hopes to influence leaders of faith-based institutions and community-based organizations to do the following:
- create organizational policies that facilitate an increase in knowledge about healthy eating and access to healthy food;
- address cultures of eating, dietary habits, and overall lifestyle patterns by taking the lead in educating members about health, food, and agricultural issues;
- and make fresh, healthy, and culturally-appropriate food affordable to community members by creating new and supporting existing community-based food systems.
This project is supported by a 2008-2010 Food and Society Policy Fellowship, a national program of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.