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Local leaders plan to host national food inequity conference in Buffalo

Urban Fruits & Veggies
Posted at 5:36 PM, Sep 07, 2022
and last updated 2022-09-07 17:52:26-04

BUFFALO (WKBW) — Local leaders are coming together to bring a national conference to Buffalo to help resolve food inequity in Western New York and beyond.

Food inequity is a chronic issue that has impacted East Buffalo for years and was pushed to the forefront in the wake of the mass shooting at Tops Market on Jefferson Avenue.

"What happened here on May 14th shouldn't happen anywhere," said Reverend Mark Blue, President of the NAACP Buffalo Chapter, "It only happened here because there were not other grocery stores in our area."

The one day conference is set for October 12th in Buffalo.

"Coming to Buffalo will be America's leading scholars, experts, business people and educators in food and equity," says Kevin Gaughan, who is organizing the conference. "Most importantly we will have Black citizens, Black leaders and Black farmers who understand this issue the best and are making great strides in finding solutions here in East Buffalo."

The goal of the conference on food inequity is to not only hear from national experts, but to also connect local leaders already working in the community with additional investment and resources.

"We hvae plans, we have real hard facts and plans that these resources can invest in immediately, to make the changes that we need," says Alexander Wright, the founder of African Heritage Food Co-Op. "Our understanding is that the folks that are going to be involved in this conference are the folks that actually want to do the work. Folks that want to get in the trenches."

Allison Dehonney is the founder of Urban Fruits and Veggies, which grows, harvests and distributes fresh food in East Buffalo. Dehonney believes that the connections made during the upcoming conference can have a lasting impact.

"Folks all over the country, even internationally, can come and say, this all started as grassroots. Now these are models that we would like to replicate because they are admirable, because they are changing peoples lives," says Dehonney.

The conference will include presentations from several national experts and will allow local organizations to discuss their plans.

The event will be co-chaired by Rita Hubbard-Robinson, the CEO of NeuWater & Associates and David Thomas, the President of Morehouse College.