Food brought Austin residents together Thursday evening at Bethel New Life for a conversation about the history of Black food traditions, the importance of food access and the role community plays in shaping the neighborhood’s culinary future.
Approximately 200 attendees gathered at 1150 N Lamon Ave. and watched an episode of Netflix’s “High on the Hog.” The episode titled “Feeding the Culture” explores the legacy of the Black Panther Party’s free breakfast program and the connections between food, race and culture. The screening was followed by a panel discussion focused on food access and solutions within the community.
Aniki Coates, senior manager of horticulture and wellness at Bethel New Life and program director for the Austin Food Ecosystem Initiative, served as the moderator.
“Food is so much more than just what we eat. It tells our stories. It holds memories. It connects us to our ancestors and creates opportunities for healing, economic empowerment and community transformation,” Coates said.
The event was hosted by One Earth Film Festival in partnership with the Austin Eats collaborative, which works to improve healthy food access and promote food education in Chicago’s Austin community.
Panelists included Linda Tart, a former member of the Black Panther Party; Lclat Baxter, owner of Jam Grill; and Elizabeth Abunaw, founder of Austin’s Forty Acres Fresh Market.
Tart shared her involvement in the party’s Breakfast for Children program in Chicago, explaining how it addressed hunger and served as a community survival program. Her reflections connected the history of grassroots organizing to ongoing conversations about food access and meeting community needs.
“When you see a need, meet the need, and work together as an organization,” Tart said.
The Black Panther Party was a revolutionary Black political organization founded in 1966 that fought against systemic racism, police brutality and economic inequality while advocating for Black self-determination and community empowerment.Tart referenced a book during the conversation that documents the Black Panther Party’s Breakfast for Children program and includes photos of those involved. The Black Panther Party launched the Free Breakfast for Children Program.
“This book is beneficial because it gave me a world perspective on colonialism and imperialism and I learned about different revolutionaries like Che Guevara and Fidel Castro,” Tart said.
Credit: Hector Cervantes
Abunaw said the food system is fundamentally broken and that operating one grocery store as she does cannot solve the systemic inequalities that affect how food is grown, transported and sold.
“All I am trying to do is be a unicorn. I’m not changing the system with one store. It doesn’t do that. This store has to operate within this broken system and try to actually survive, which we’re barely doing. I just want to be very honest. It’s not cute,” Abunaw said.
Abunaw recalled how a 2016 trip on the No. 66 Chicago bus led her to recognize the unequal access to basic resources across Chicago neighborhoods. After struggling to find a bank, pharmacy or grocery store near Chicago and Laramie, she began thinking about why a quality grocery store could not serve the Austin community.
“Austin should be able to support multiple grocery stores, with a population this large. But decades of shopping in Oak Park, Forest Park and River Forest, or going up to Belmont Cragin, have made it really difficult to get people in Austin to believe there is a quality option in their neighborhood and not pigeonhole it,” Abunaw said.
She emphasized that food insecurity is often used too broadly to describe challenges in Austin, where some residents can access food but must travel farther to find the options they want and deserve. She distinguished limited access from the inability to afford or obtain food, arguing that the broader food system is broken across its supply, environmental and labor sectors.
Baxter’s perspective on food access is shaped by growing up in Jamaica. He compared the abundance of fresh, locally sourced food there with the high cost of groceries in the United States.
“I work with the community and the city, and I work with at-risk kids. Through working in the community and listening to them, I think we do a disservice to our children as parents,” Baxter said. “We’re not teaching them the right way to eat or how food affects their bodies and helps keep them healthy. I also think it’s about education. The community isn’t educated when it comes to food.”
He explained that many neighborhoods have limited access to nutritious food, with residents often relying on fast food, gas stations and canned goods. He also pointed to the number of children who go to school hungry and some who take on the responsibility of feeding younger siblings at home.