FooDEI: Making Room for Equity at the Dinner Table

Food sovereignty is the right to healthy, and culturally appropriate food. FooDEI understands that food production and distribution are rooted in a history of genocide, racism, and inequity. Most of the lands on which our food is produced were stolen from the indigenous peoples living there and then cultivated by enslaved people. With their project, FooDEI is in pursuit of a community where food is sustainably produced by racially diverse farmers, and everyone has access to an abundance of healthy food. 

Forming the Team 

The FooDEI team met through several virtual roundtables facilitated by both Innovation in Action as well as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Along with their shared passion for promoting DEI values, they each brought their strengths and expertise to the table. According to Catherine Lumanauw, “a couple of us had not known what food sovereignty meant whatsoever. Others learned the extent of virtual reality (VR). Overall, combining both food sovereignty and augmented reality was something we had not realized would be feasible, but the goal was to understand that anything was possible when merging VR and food sovereignty.” 

The team benefitted from the variety of disciplines from which members came – Hannah and Deena brought an open-minded viewpoint as students in the School of Social Work, Catherine was able to create a physical prototype as a student in the School of Information, and Ayana gathered a plethora of insightful research through the School of Environment & Sustainability. “This allowed us to work to the best of our ability in such a struggling era. We created a safe space for each student to work on this side project.” (Catherine) 

Envisioning a New Reality 

The result of FooDEI’s hard work is a simulated narrative in which users can let a QR code take them on an augmented reality journey to learn about agroecology, engage politically, and reimagine the food system in Ann Arbor. By following a “Disorientation Map,” users will stop at the Union, the Farmers Market, and the Campus Farm. At each stop, the user will learn about how racism and lack of diversity are upheld by the food system. While doing this work of education, users will have the opportunity to envision a more equitable system. 

One of the stops on the Disorientation Map is the Campus Farm in which FooDEI shares their vision for the gathering of communities around culturally appropriate food. A part of that vision is to have a site for heritage crops and seed keeping where native crops would be grown along with culturally significant African heritage crops. 

Food sovereignty and agroecology are complex issues. To explore solutions, FooDEI had to reach out to those around them. “Our team learned that the more we spoke to experts, instructors, and organizations, the more we were able to formulate/narrow down our design idea. Afterward, everything else seemed to fall into place.” (Catherine) Through conversations with stakeholders, FooDEI was able to fully realize their vision with Innovation in Action. 

FooDEI joined Innovation in Action to push their creative outlet, add to their portfolio, and build on their thesis. “We never had the prize in mind because we wanted to create something that would align with our passions in one way or another.” (Catherine) They are leaving Innovation in Action having achieved those goals by strengthening their drive to bring equity and justice to food production and consumption. 

Moving forward, FooDEI will make a higher fidelity version of their food journey and build off of that fidelity this summer. They will stay involved in food justice by learning about where their food comes from as well as the land on which they live. They encourage others to do the same in order to bring equity to our communities, our politics, and our food tables.