Campus Kitchen Announces 2024-25 Just Food Series The annual event series examines the ways in which food systems interact with issues of social justice.

By Emily Innes
October 7, 2024

Join the Campus Kitchen at Washington and Lee (CKWL) for the 2024-25 Just Food event series. The program examines the intersection of food systems and social justice, offering valuable opportunities for W&L students, the campus community and the wider Lexington-Rockbridge community to explore how food interplays with cultural development.

“I am excited to kick off our fourth annual Just Food series this fall, which focuses on the stories and organizations that impact our local food systems here in Virginia,” said Ryan Brink, assistant director of the Shepherd Program and CKWL coordinator. “This year’s events will feature wide-ranging topics and increased collaboration with our many supportive academic departments and organizations on campus.”

To learn more about the events listed below and to stay up-to-date on programming, visit the Just Food webpage.

Nurturing the Local Food Community with Maureen McNamara Best
Monday, Oct. 21 at 5:30 p.m. | Northen Auditorium, Leyburn Library
Join CKWL and the university’s Environmental Studies Program for a presentation by Maureen McNamara Best, executive director of the Local Environmental Agricultural Project, a sustainable community farmers market in Roanoke, Virginia. The talk is titled “Nurturing the Local Food Community: Supporting Farmers and Increasing Equitable Access.” McNamara has been working with food, agriculture and community since the early 2000s, and her wide-ranging professional experience has included teaching high school agriculture in Raleigh, North Carolina; working with migrant farmworkers in eastern North Carolina and the Colorado plains; conducting food safety inspections in Boulder, Colorado; and studying the economic viability of the local food system in northern Colorado. McNamara is currently a Bloomberg Fellow at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she studies the intersection of food systems, community and health.

Food, Power, and Eugenics in Shenandoah National Park
Tuesday, Oct. 29 at 5:30 p.m. | Hillel Multipurpose Room
Join CKWL and W&L’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology for a discussion with Glenn Davis Stone, the department’s scholar in residence, and Richard Knox Robinson, award-winning photographer and filmmaker, about the history of Shenandoah National Park and how foodways played a role in displacing residents of the lands that would eventually become the park. Stone is an anthropologist and environmental scientist who specializes in food production and agriculture, biotechnology in food and agriculture, the politics of technology and indigenous knowledge and decision-making. Robinson’s first film, “The Beekeepers,” premiered at Sundance in 2009 and won in the Best Short Documentary category at the Atlanta Film Festival. His photographs have been featured in over 30 publications including The Washington Post, Smithsonian, Time and National Geographic Traveler.

Fourth Annual Indigenous Community Meal
Tuesday, Nov. 12 at 5:30 p.m. | Evans Hall
Presented by CKWL, the Native American Student Organization and the Native American and Indigenous Cohort, the evening will feature a menu that highlights indigenous ingredients and recipes and include guided discussions around the influence of indigenous wisdom and foodways and the impact of the modern Thanksgiving narrative.