22 Inspiring Women of Social Gastronomy

“It’s 2022, and we are still trying to figure out how to empower women.”

Image by Andrea Piacquiadio

It’s March 8, International Women’s Day. In a recent Nordic Talk hosted by Sustainable Gastro, “Empowering Women through Social Gastronomy,” moderator Edith Salminen opened with the sobering yet straightforward statement above. She’s right.

Let us remember the deep roots of International Women’s Day within a labor struggle. This internationally recognized date is a time for us to celebrate the socio-economic, political, and cultural achievements of women. It is also an opportunity to look at the present state of gender politics critically.

Over 43% of the agricultural workforce in developing countries are women. According to the International Food Policy Institute, while” globally, women and men work together as agricultural producers and household caregivers to secure their households’ livelihoods, food security, and nutrition… the division of rights, resources, and responsibilities between men and women often makes women and girls more vulnerable to malnutrition, poor health, and excessive workloads.” Globally, women still earn 77 cents to every dollar made by a man. Today, we remember that the right to food can not be guaranteed without gender equity. 

There is a lot of work to be done. Conversations like “Empowering Women through Social Gastronomy” and the many women we interact with every day give us hope for the future. 

Women drive the Social Gastronomy Movement. These intelligent, creative, and caring ladies are fighting to transform their local realities through food in all corners of the world. Over 60% of the SGM member base identify as female, and today we wish to spotlight their work. Read on for some of the many women powering social gastronomy.

Jennifer Avci, Lithuania

Jennifer is the Founder &  Project Development Manager of Sustainable Gastro. She is the Coordinator of Nordic Talks / Social Gastronomy Talks, a series of conversations between women helping to transform local food systems and close the gender gap. In addition to fostering the Movement in the Nordic/Baltic region, her dedication and coordination of this dialogue series have highlighted the incredibly innovative practices and ideas from other women from this global community. 

Karissa Becerra, Peru

Karissa Becerra is a chef, founder, and director of La Revolución. This nonprofit organization engages the stomachs and minds of children and adults alike through an innovative food literacy program and several educational campaigns. "Riquisisísimo, cocina peruana para niños" is her last cookbook. It encourages eating and cooking at home, keeping traditions, and embracing our time in the kitchen as a way to explore who we are. In 2018 she was a finalist of the Basque Culinary World Prize, and she is currently the coordinator of the new degree in Gastronomy from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Perú.

Chef Peggy Chan, Hong Kong

Peggy Chan is the executive director of Grassroots Initiatives. This social enterprise trains restaurant managers and chefs to become accountable for their emissions within their operations and then work towards mitigating them. With the NGO @zerofoodprint.asia, the goal is to mobilize the food industry around agricultural climate solutions, educate staff and diners around the need to shift away from intensive industrial agrarian systems, and map out ways to reduce our carbon footprint locally and regionally.

Gabriela Chang, Mexico

Gabriela Chang is the co-founder of EthicHub, a global solution to finance agriculture projects and make a positive impact. This program benefits smallholder farmers who don't have access to the banking system and investors or buyers of their products by connecting them in mutual benefit, creating a long-term drive for sustainable economic development.

Rashmika Das and Atreyee Madhukalya, India 

We love the friendship and partnership between the two social gastronauts, Rashmika and Atreyee. Over the past year, they have used passion and skill to bring social gastronomy to young people in India. 

Rashmika is a Development Practitioner with over 5 years of experience working in the social sector-focused mostly in rural India. She is currently working as a Global Experience & Operations Specialist at @wearegoodera, a social enterprise mapping end-to-end facilitation between corporates and non-profit organizations across the globe.

Atreyee is a Political Science student turned chef & writer. Passionate about reading about lesser-known ingredients, her work focuses on creating a safe space for chefs within the workplace. Atreyee strives to one day bring about changes in the way we see food and the relationship we share with local produce.

Ariana Diaz, USA

Ariana is a previous intern, food writer, and recipe developer in Austin, TX. Reading one of her articles you will see that food is her language. She is a student and advocates for sustainability, food justice, and mental health by curating ingredients and telling their important stories. Currently, she is writing a cookbook inspired by the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals alongside cooks working in social impact around the world. In addition to freelance writing, she educates the local community through meals and uses creative communication tools to reach underrepresented audiences in food media. She also recently founded Aleph cookery, a marketplace, a culturally-centered community grocery.

Michellee Fox, Brazil/USA

Michellee Fox is a chef and business developer that seeks to bridge the gap between minority farmers and the food industry, shifting mindsets into a ‘seasonality train of thought. ‘ She also aims to shed light on food as medicine and the poison hidden in processed foods. She is currently working with media and youth chefs to add African food to the World Food map. Follow her journey @ChefMichelleeFox

Lena Friblick, Sweden

Lena Friblick is a journalist who started to work with food to create social cohesion and a sustainable city. She is the founder of Botildenborg, an organization in Malmö, Sweden, aiming to collaborate with different sectors to build a more inclusive society through food. Lena is a long-time member of the Social Gastronomy Movement, and we thank her for being such a strong presence in the Nordics! 

Anna Hofmann, Switzerland

Anna Hofmann is a member of the Swiss Foundation board of SGM and one of the original social gastronauts. Her organization, Cuisine Sans Frontières, builds gastronomic meeting places and training facilities in (social) conflict areas, always in cooperation with a local partnering organization. They provide support in the form of volunteers, practical know-how, and financial aid.

Michelle Horovitz & LaTasha Powell, USA 

Michelle Horovitz and LaTasha Powell are long-time members of SGM and have been working throughout the years to promote racial justice and equity in the Twin Cities. Their organization, Appetite For Change, uses food as a tool for building health, wealth, and social change. Based in North Minneapolis, US, they bring people together to learn, cook, eat, and grow food. Their efforts are creating change through the AFC cafe, catering, urban agriculture, cooking workshops, network/coalition leadership, youth training, commercial kitchen rental, and more.

Ariane Jauregui, Bolivia

Ariane Jauregui is a food educator with a passion for food that delivers a tangible impact. She would love to share and learn about the intersection between food, cultural identity, science, and education, integrating an eco-sustainable and regenerative approach and a social equity dimension. Ariane was also one of our facilitators for the May 2021 dialogue “Looking Back to Move Forward: Ancestral Knowledge & Agroecology.”

Adriane Mack, USA 

Adriane Mack from Harlem, NYC, is the CEO and founder of Miss Mack Enterprises. Her business development firm focuses on hospitality training for what she refers to as “RBLC: restaurants, bars, lounges, and cafes.” From training owners on how to care holistically for their employees to workforce reintegration for returning citizens, Adriane puts social gastronomy into practice with every project. Listen to the Food Solidarity Podcast to hear Adriane’s story, learn more about her work with workforce reintegration, and get to know the NYC restaurant scene through the lens of social gastronomy.

Inés Páez (Chef Tita), Dominican Republic

Chef Tita is a powerhouse of social gastronomy. Her organization, Fundación Ima, uses gastronomy as a tool of social change to transform the lives of vulnerable communities, farmers, and small food producers in the Dominican Republic by supporting the entire food production chain, providing training, and education in food handling, nutrition, and health. The organization uses natural resources and local products to boost the empowerment of small rural communities to implement new business ventures.

Ivani Pauli, Brazil

Ivani Pauli is a master in molecular biology at PUCRS. Ph.D. in science from IFSC-USP. Specialist in molecular interaction design and enthusiastic about the regenerative lifestyle. Member of the PRETATERRA team, the largest agroforestry intelligence hub in the world.. Ambassador of Thought for Food and climate shaper by the Future Food Institute and UN FAO. "I believe the way we feed ourselves is the most effective way to change our reality. It is a way to vote for change."

Carmen Posada, Colombia 

Carmen Posada is the Co-Founder of Mucho Colombia, a marketplace app selling local produce free of intermediaries and promoting territory-friendly food habits. Carmen is an entrepreneur and food systems consultant with extensive experience with rural communities, food logistics chains, and sustainability criteria. She's passionate about native seeds and their role in biodiversity and ecosystem protection.

Claudia Rubio, Colombia

Claudia is an environmental lawyer based in Medellín, Colombia, and the coordinator of Platos Sin Fronteras. She is also a member of the SGM Collective Impact Program as an integral part of the Medellin host team, uniting multi-stakeholder action teams under the spirit of “doing with, not for” those experiencing food insecurity and inequity. 

Dina Saoudi, Jordan

Dina Saoudi is the co-founder of The Empowering through™ Model, an ecosystem approach to bringing representatives from all stakeholders to work together to support individuals with economic and social empowerment through a series of projects, programs, and initiatives. "Empowering Women through Cooking" is a book that shares the stories and recipes from 54 women with diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds living in Jordan. Dina was core to the co-creation of our June 2021 dialogue “Stories of Radical Resilience” as part of our independent series for the UN Food Systems Summit. You can also hear from her in the recent Nordic Talk “Empowering Women through Social Gastronomy.”

Magali Silva, Peru

Magali Silva is a community leader, social gastronomy enthusiast, and an economist by trade.  "I believe in the power of responsible trade and tourism as a tool of cooperation and collaboration of different countries, disciplines, languages, and backgrounds to establish deep relationships that connect communities to address unequal distribution of resources and lack of opportunities around the globe,” says Magali. 

Veronica Socarras, Colombia

Veronica Socarrás is a Business Administrator with a Master's in Gastronomic Tourism from the Basque Culinary Center and a volunteer for Platos sin Fronteras. She is “convinced that through gastronomy, we can generate changes in society and economic development in our countries"

Jaclinn Tanney, USA

Jaclinn Tanney has devoted her career to culture and building organizations that bring the most out of their people. She has been part of Le Pain Quotidien, Mount Sinai Medical Center, DKMS, Orbis International, and the University of Pennsylvania. She is part of our movement representing the Migrant Kitchen, an NYC-based initiative that aims to feed the food insecure in the city with a buy a meal- donate a meal system. She is a member of the Council of Protocol Executives, Women in Development, and the Association of Fundraising Professionals where she was a recipient of the Organizational Hero Award.

If we covered all of the women who inspire us from this Movement, this blog would be about ten pages longer than it is now. For more girl power, make sure to read last year’s post on the recipients of the Food Solidarity Fund, and stay tuned on our social media accounts for more!