Hi! My name is Stephanie, and I am a rising junior at Baruch College in New York City and a current Summer Intern with Balanced. I am majoring in Public Affairs with a minor in Black and Latino Studies, and I am passionate about reforming the food system in a way that makes nutritious food more accessible for vulnerable communities. I have seen firsthand the effects of living in an inequitable food system and want to be a part of the change in making nutritious food accessible.
The reason I got the opportunity to intern with Balanced this summer was because of the Reducetarian Fellowship, a program that offers a 10-week long summer internship with one of their partner organizations in the food advocacy space. After various interviews and a matchmaking process done by my fellowship director, I was paired with Balanced and their wonderful advocacy team.
The Reducetarian Fellowship is a year-long fellowship that focuses on educating college students on the ways factory farming harms the planet, animals, and human health. The fellowship includes a weekly seminar curriculum where each session covers a different aspect of the food system: from the way it affects workers, the environment, animals, and so much more. Before the fellowship, I did not have the vocabulary to describe the food inequities around me as someone who was living in a food desert—I didn't even know what “factory farming” was.
Throughout the fellowship, I have learned so much about how factory farming and animal agriculture disadvantage the world. As a part of one of our sessions, we watched the film “Smell of Money,” a documentary produced by Jamie Berger. The documentary followed North Carolina residents battling against Smithfield, one of the largest pork processing companies in the U.S. Smithfield had been using a predominantly black county in North Carolina as grounds for spraying leftover pig manure that had been overflowing from their factories. Stories like this have opened my eyes to the inequities that exist within our food system.
I learned about how the meat industry exploits poor immigrant workers, how major corporations destroy and displace marginalized communities by building factories near their homes, and the things animals endure for produce.
We also explored the various careers that are open to students interested in reforming our food systems and combating animal agriculture and got the opportunity to work with one of our partner organizations for the summer.
This October, I will have the incredible opportunity to present as a keynote speaker at our annual Reducetarian Summit on how factory farming affects marginalized communities. Coming from a marginalized community myself, I try to center and focus my attention on the ways our food system destabilizes non-white neighborhoods. I look forward to seeing familiar faces and meeting new people working to make positive change.
It has been such an amazing experience working with Balanced, and I am so pleased to have been a part of the advocacy team, learning about the different ways I can help fix our food system. I am so happy to have had the opportunity to intern with Balanced this summer and gain valuable knowledge about the food advocacy space.
Join Balanced and Stephanie at the 2024 Reducetarian Summit on October 25-27th in Dallas, TX
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