World Food Day Food Heroes Dialogue

13 October 2021, Washington, DC - During a special dialogue with Food Heroes, hosted by FAO North America in celebration of World Food Day, a dynamic group of individuals – Sam Kass, Rich Francis, Pashon Murray, and Monique Chan, were led through a series of questions detailing their contributions to agri-food systems. 

As one of the most celebrated days on the UN calendar, World Food Day serves as an opportunity to promote action on hunger, the need for healthy diets, and sustainable agriculture. The theme this year “Our actions are our future,” called for collective action for “better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life.” The four food heroes exemplified this theme precisely by sharing their stories, advice for consumers, and their hopes for the future of food systems. 

Jocelyn Brown Hall, Director of FAO North America, who served as the moderator for the session, set the scene for the discussion. “Over 811 million people suffer from hunger, and 3 billion people – nearly 40 percent of the world’s population – cannot afford healthy diets. At the same time, one-third of all food produced is either lost or wasted and our food system currently contributes to one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions,” said Brown Hall.  

“My hope for the food system is that agriculture starts to be seen, invested in, and supported as one of our best chances to mitigate and solve a huge portion of the issue of climate change,” said Sam Kass, Former White House Chef and Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition. His advice for individuals was to bring attention to the issue of nutrition and sustainable food systems at home, at the workplace or your community at large. “If we all just start paying a little more attention, that will add up to transformational change,” added Kass. 

Rich Francis is an Indigenous Chef and Activist who is rediscovering pre-colonial Indigenous foodways in Canada. Francis shared that while Indigenous food is rooted in trauma, it is also rooted in resilience. “It wasn’t until I became a chef that I started to identify with who I was through Indigenous foods,” said Francis, describing how this identity has allowed him to make a bigger impact. Francis’ hope for the future of food is that we start to see more Indigenous voices on global issues.  

As the founder of Detroit Dirt, a closed-loop composting company, Pashon Murray does not see waste as waste, but as a resource. “When we bury food in landfills, we are giving off GHG emissions,” said Murray, discussing how food waste causes billions of dollars in losses and then causes environmental destruction when it is discarded. “My goal is not only to help people in vulnerable communities understand what is going on but also to make sure their voices are heard,” said Pashon, urging for more equitable food and governance systems.  

“I studied food waste and at the same time I worked in a restaurant that was throwing out so much food every single night,” said Monique Chan, Founder of Bruized, a women-run start up tackling food waste. Monique calls upon everyone to challenge themselves and think about the food waste they create in their own homes and make changes wherever possible. 

The lively session concluded with remarks by Hiram Larew, founder of Poetry x Hunger, who advocated for poetry as a powerful tool to raise awareness of hunger and introduced the readers of two powerful and captivating poems that were part of the 2021 World Food Day Special Call for poetry. The first one, “Hunger: a never satiated sonnet,” written by Thomas Schuelke was read by Alice Major, whom both reside in Alberta, Canada. The second poem was, “Spaghettios with fresh oregano,” which was written and read by Molly Burack from Oregon, United States.