"Fidelity, Equity, and Dignity in Produce Prescriptions"
Abstract
The session, led by CEO Benjamin Perkins, will share the work of the pioneering food justice organization Wholesome Wave, and it particular its Fidelity, Equity, and Dignity (FED) framework for racial justice and health. The FED principles are derived from decades of organizing for healthy equity and faith-based movements, and are designed to impact food and health systems nationwide. Benjamin will discuss how the FED framework has formed both a platform for internal organizational transformation, as well for its strategies for ensuring that everyone in the country has access to affordable healthy food.
Speaker Bio
An avid social-justice practitioner, intellectual, and creative thinker, Benjamin Perkins is the CEO of Wholesome Wave, a national organization that creates partnership-based programs that enable underserved consumers to make healthier food choices by increasing affordable access to health, locally and regionally grown foods. His focus has been health disparities and inequities in cardiovascular disease and stroke rates among communities of color and other underserved populations, where he worked for the American Heart Association as Vice President for Multicultural Health Initiative and Health Equity as well as Vice President of Health Strategies. Previously he specialized in disease prevention and research education to communities vulnerable to HIV infection, with roles from community board chair, to founding director of a CDC-funded wellness center, to project director for an NIH-funded HIV-prevention study. Benjamin received his Master of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School in 2000 and is an ordained minister serving a wonderfully multicultural congregation.