Food and Racial Justice - Adult Panel

In October, we are focusing on the intersection between food systems and racial justice. Come hear 5 powerful leaders share their work and the ways they think about systems change. This event is open for all ages to attend! High schoolers, middle schoolers and younger students that are passionate about this topic are very welcome to register and participate. Oh, and we guess adults are ok too. :)
Can't attend the live event but want to submit a question for the panelists and then watch the recording? Submit your question here: https://forms.gle/8RLcH8s22EvUHcaD8

Panelists:

Ahmed "Tacumba" Turner (Moderator)
Program Manager, Oasis Farm and Fishery

Leticia Ama Deawuo
Director, Black Creek Community Farm
Chair, SeedChange

Barbara Johnson
Senior Director, Center for Race and Gender Equity, YWCA Greater Pittsburgh

Shaman Pomaj chakmam Yajalaji
Shaman, Iroquois Confederacy of Aborigine American Peoples Program Manager, Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers of Pittsburgh Coop
Founder, IPAA an Aborigine Permaculturalist Alliance

NaTisha Washington
Environmental Justice Organizer, OnePA

Social and environmental issues are deeply intertwined. Many of the biggest impacts of climate change, pollution, resource scarcity, and food insecurity are felt by those that are most marginalized. Meanwhile, many environmental movements and organizations continue to be led by those who hold the most resources, wealth and opportunity in society. Join us for a year of deeper learning. Please note: every event will not focus on both the social and the environmental issue for the month. We hope this series will help make new connections between social and environmental issues in ways our speakers (or you) may not have thought about before.

More information on the whole social justice and sustainability series: https://chatham.edu/edenhall/k12/socialjustice.cfm

Full Panelist Bios

Ahmed "Tacumba" Turner (Moderator)
Program Manager, Oasis Farm and Fishery

Tacumba Turner is a culture worker and land steward who serves as The Program Manager of The Oasis Farm & Fishery, which is a black-owned and led urban farm in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Homewood. Oasis Farm & Fishery’s mission is to grow food, grow people, and grow the community. The organization exists to teach and apply urban farming techniques and equip youth and adults to grow their own food and cook healthy recipes using fresh produce.


Leticia Ama Deawuo
Director, Black Creek Community Farm
Chair, SeedChange

Leticia Ama Deawuo is a long-time resident of Jane-Finch Community and mother of two children who has been a leading social activist work in Jane-Finch area of Toronto and across the City of Toronto for the past 14 years. As a community resident and organizer, Leticia has been absolutely instrumental in development and formation of a number of prominent community groups and initiatives including Jane Finch On The Move, Jane Finch Action Against Poverty, Jane Finch Political Conversation Café, Black Creek Food Justice Network, Mothers-In-Motion and so on and so forth. Leticia also worked as a Community Development Worker with Jane/Finch Community and Family Centre for many years.

In her capacity as a program worker, then a program manager and now the director of the Black Creek Community Farm, Leticia has shown excellent capabilities to engage residents, allies and other stakeholders in struggles for community improvement and social and economic justice including the realization of food security and food justice in Jane-Finch. She has helped facilitate the formation of Black Creek Food Justice Network, Black Creek Community Farm Resident Council and has managed to bring together a wide range of allies and supporters together to work for the enhancement of the community farm and the non-profit urban food development in one of Toronto’s most excluded and disadvantaged communities.

Leticia is a member of the Toronto Food Policy Council. She is the chair of SeedChange formerly USC Canada and is currently a part-time instructor with George Brown College. Leticia is a recipient of the Arrell Institute, Canada Community Food Hero Award.

Learn more about Black Creek Community Farm in this Video made by Earth to Tables Legacies (link: https://earthtotables.org/essays/black-creek-community-farm/)


Barbara Johnson
Senior Director, Center for Race and Gender Equity, YWCA Greater Pittsburgh

Barbara Johnson is Vice President, Center for Race and Gender Equity at YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh. The Center is the advocacy and educational arm of the YW mission to eliminate racism and empower women. She spent two years in Central PA at Susquehanna University, one of the top five employers of Snyder County. There, Barbara led their new Office of Workforce Diversity and Inclusion as an integral member of their Human Resources Department. Her primary focus was to develop partnerships with the local community, establish a professional development initiative for university employees and build more diverse hiring practices. Prior to that, she worked at Carlow University as Director of Diversity and Inclusion in the Student Affairs Department working primarily with student leadership development and student programs.

Barbara has an undergraduate degree in Performing Arts/Dance, a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership and is now completing the final manuscript for a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Her non-fiction manuscript will include a series of essays on race. She enjoys family time with her husband and two young adult sons, is a seamstress, a vegetarian and loves to dance. She proudly serves on two local nonprofit boards, Hill Dance Academy Theater(HDAT) and Aryse.


Shaman Pomaj chakmam Yajalaji
Shaman, Iroquois Confederacy of Aborigine American Peoples Program Manager, Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers of Pittsburgh Coop
Founder, IPAA an Aborigine Permaculturalist Alliance

Pomaj Chakmam Yajalaji is a Shaman Medicine Woman of The Iroquois Confederacy of Aborigine American People, Permaculturalist, and Land, Water, and Air Steward. She is the Founder of Cultural Oasis Apothecary/Healing Space, First Aborigine Indigenous Healing Emporium. She is also the Founder of Indigenous Farming Aborigine Alliance. Pomaj is the Program Manager of Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers of Pittsburgh Coop, and a member of Lincoln Lemington Collaborative, Lincoln Lemington Consensus Group, Three Rivers Agricultural Land Initiative, and Co-Chair of the Urban Agriculture Working Group.


NaTisha Washington
Environmental Justice Organizer, OnePA

NaTisha Washington is currently the Environmental Justice Organizer at One Pennsylvania where she hopes to assist more communities with their environmental injustices and needs. Being a Pittsburgh native she’s always had the goal of improving the environment of her city and cities like it through planning and hands on work.

After graduating from Wilkinsburg High school, she went to study Landscape Contracting Design at the Pennsylvania State University where she received her bachelors in Horticulture. Afterwards she then went on to become a certified Master Gardener through the Penn State Extension in Pittsburgh.

Her community non-profit work started at Operation Better Block (OBB) where she put all her efforts into planning out and improving the green spaces in Homewood with OBB’s Junior Green Corp. The Junior Green Corp is a group of teens 14 to 18 that she taught and worked with all year focusing on horticulture, vacant lot restoration and job readiness. She’s partnered with many local environmental organizations to facilitate and implement projects like green infrastructure building, reducing air pollution through tree planting, reducing lead contamination through soil testing, and hosting a multitude of community focused and volunteer events.

NaTisha owns a consulting company called Washington’s Green Solutions LLC where she is striving to help educate and assist other groups on environmental topics and personal solutions. In the future she hopes to be able to solve sustainability issues for groups big and small around the nation that experience similar issues.