At Food Tank’s incredible two-day summit last week in New York City, more than 80 speakers and 900 attendees came together for incredible conversations, networking, and working sessions. Both days were amazing—and we’re grateful to NYU-Steinhardt, the Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center, Great Performances, and Chartwells for their partnership!
Videos are currently in post-production, and you will be able to watch all of them for free at FoodTank.com. If you want an analysis of each conversation, please subscribe to our podcast “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg,” where we will be featuring several of the discussions.
We will be hosting great programs across the country this year, and we want to see you at each of these events—to question, to interact with colleagues, to criticize and critique, and to offer steps for a way forward to solve some of the most pressing issues in the food and agriculture system.
Here are seven upcoming opportunities for you to become more involved with Food Tank:
1. At the Food Tank Summit Gala, we debuted original music from our upcoming fully interactive, original off-Broadway show about climate change called “Garjana,” debuting on June 10, 2020, in partnership with the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club at the Ellen Stewart Theatre. The show features all-original music from Grammy-nominated Ghanaian star and United Nations Ambassador Rocky Dawuni. This is an extraordinary undertaking, as we are planning a three-month run and more than 100 performances. We strongly believe that the performing arts and involving that community is critical to the long-term growth and success of the good food movement. Please forward to anyone you think might be interested in helping, and email Food Tank Co-Founder Bernard Pollack directly at bernard@foodtank.com.
2. On November 20, in partnership with the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston, we will have a Food Tank Live event themed “Transparency, Equity, Affordability, and Social Justice in the Food System.” Confirmed speakers include Dariush Mozaffarian (Tufts University), Danielle Nierenberg (Food Tank), Frances Moore Lappé (Small Planet Institute), Wenonah Hauter (Food & Water Watch), Katherine Walla (Food Tank), and Sara Bleich (Harvard University). The event is completely free to Food Tank members as well as students from across the city.
3. On January 22, Food Tank is partnering with Arizona State University and Kathleen Merrigan, Executive Director of the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, on a Food Tank Summit focused on the wisdom of indigenous food systems! We are so excited about this, and it will be completely free for Food Tank Members as well as students.
4. In late January 2020, we are starting a monthly “Food Tank Live” event series in Chicago in partnership with Whole Foods Market and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs! Each event will have a different theme featuring terrific speakers (moderated by journalists) as well as delicious snacks and fun networking afterward. We are looking to expand this event series to Minneapolis in Spring 2020.
5. In March, if you are planning to attend South by Southwest (SXSW) 2020 in Austin, Food Tank has an official discussion around “The U.S./Mexico Border and the Food System,” and we’ll be involved in other panels as well as some fun off-site events.
6. As you know, Food Tank publishes original articles and research daily on FoodTank.com, and we are always looking for interns, freelance pitches, and applicants for our paid fellowships. Most of our hiring comes from within our staff, so these opportunities are terrific ways to get a foot in the door. Apply HERE.
7. We are planning our 5th Annual Food Tank Washington, D.C., Summit around food policy on Capitol Hill in 2020, held at the U.S. Congressional Auditorium. Stay tuned for more announcements.
And if you aren’t already, please become a member of Food Tank. We do all this incredible work with a small team of only four staff, and we are only able to do this vast array of programming if you join today. Please click here to become a member: https://foodtank.com/join.
Please get involved in 2020! It’s going to be an extraordinary year!
