Dr. M Jahi Johnson-Chappell

Director, Center for Regional Food Systems, Professor, W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair 

As the new Director of the Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems, I am honored to welcome you to the 2023 Summit. 

Since 2010, the Michigan Good Food Summit has been a unique space to learn, connect, and grow together as a community dedicated to a thriving Michigan food system, now and into the future. Together, we seek a Michigan food system that is (as outlined in the 2022 Michigan Good Food Charter that we will be celebrating) accessible, equitable, fair, healthy, diverse, and sustainable. 

There is no better time for us to come together as we need to collectively re-discover and re-design our world. Recent years have rocked our societies, with a global pandemic, international conflict, tragic and preventable violence—including the mass shooting on our own campus in February—and continued systems of institutionalized oppression and inequity. Not just despite, but because of this, now is the time to come together, to connect, to commune—because as the late bell hooks wrote, “Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion.” 

Twenty-three years ago, political scientist Robert Putnam observed that more and more of us in the United States are “bowling alone”—that is, for all of the frenetic activity of day-to-day life, many of us are doing less together. The U.S. Surgeon General has recently declared that we are in an “epidemic of loneliness.” And others have said that we are facing a drought of “third places”—places where we convene and connect outside of work and home. 

In the face of this, it is worth remembering that practically every society on earth has recognized that food is one of our strongest connectors. But not just any food—good food. Food that comes from love and is accessible by all. Food that is produced and distributed equitably; grown, raised, prepared and served under fair conditions. Food that supports, rather than detracts from, the health of our environment, our bodies, and the body politic. Food that draws on our diversity of traditions, tastes, skills, beliefs, preferences, knowledges and dignities, to bring us together over the most vital act of eating. Food created with and by love. 

To paraphrase Martin Luther King, Jr., I believe that a food system that does not honor love is reckless and abusive; and calling any food “good” outside of the context of justice is sentimental and anemic. “Good food” comes from a food system that respects the demands of justice, and nourishes all people to correct everything that mitigates against love—for ourselves, for each other, and for this state, country, and world that we share. 

I am honored to be here at the Center for Regional Food Systems, and to attend this year’s Summit, as we connect, celebrate, and elevate the knowledge, wisdom, power and potential that resides within ourselves—the potential to realize Michigan food systems that are truly Good for All. 

M. Jahi Johnson-Chappell, Ph.D. 

Director, Center for Regional Food Systems
W.K. Kellogg Foundation Endowed Chair in Food & Society
Professor, Department of Community Sustainability
Michigan State University

Shiloh Maples, MSW

Shiloh Maples is an Anishinaabe community organizer, seed keeper, and storyteller. 

Shiloh has a Master’s in Social Work from the University of Michigan, where she specialized in community organizing. She has completed certificate programs in organic farming and permaculture design. During her time as a student, Shiloh recognized the powerful potential of food systems to heal and transform communities. Since then, Shiloh has been committed to serving the Indigenous food sovereignty movement and revitalizing her own ancestral foodways. For nearly a decade, Shiloh worked within Detroit's Indigenous community to create a food sovereignty initiative that increased access to ancestral foods, offered culturally-based nutrition education, and created opportunities for the community to practice their cultural foodways in the urban landscape.

In 2021, Shiloh was a writer-in-residence at Denniston Hill in upstate New York. In 2022, Shiloh partnered with Whetstone Media to launch her podcast, Spirit Plate—which discusses the social, political, and historical reasons the Indigenous food sovereignty movement is necessary and uplifts the voices of seed keepers, chefs, historians, and community members from across the movement.

Shiloh is currently the Program Manager for Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance. 

The Farm at Trinity Health: Local farms and Food Access

Amanda Sweetman, The Farm at Trinity Health

Creating robust local food systems is a key component of long-term nutrition security for all. 

Amanda Sweetman is the Regional Director of Farming and Healthy Lifestyles for Trinity Michigan. She joined Trinity Michigan in 2015 as the Farm Manager for the Farm at Trinity Health Ann Arbor and transitioned into the newly created regional director position in 2019. Accomplishments during this time include starting the collaborative Farm Share which has generated $1M in revenue for local farms while also providing hundreds of families experiencing food insecurity with fresh, local produce; overseeing the expansion from one farm location to two; and increasing the clinical integration of the Farm with the hospital by establishing systems that allow for direct patient referrals to farm programs by medical professionals. Amanda was awarded the 2018 Cor Vitae Award from the American Heart Association for Community Service and was a Crain’s Detroit 2022 Notable Leader in Sustainability.

Flint to Table: How to Serve Communities, not Save Them

Tony Vu, Flint Social Club

Passionate, hard working people who are proud to share their culture don’t need saving, they need opportunities to thrive. 

Tony Vu has been invested in building community and fostering a supportive culture in the food world since his start in the industry. He brings a wealth of real world experience in building food businesses from the ground up, having gotten his start with popups that quickly grew into the food truck Wraps n’ Rolls. He went on to open MaMang, a Vietnamese food stall in the Flint Farmers’ Market and The Good Bowl in Traverse City, with a business model that has donated over $140,000 back to the community. Tony is also the founder of Flint Social Club, a 501c3 capacity building program with a mission to lower access barriers and mentor marginalized food entrepreneurs in Flint. His work and advocacy for Flint has been featured in numerous media outlets including The Food Network, Vice Magazine, and the Detroit Free Press; and he was recognized as one of the most important entrepreneurs of the past decade by Inc Magazine.

A Twelve Acre Change

Nurya Love Parish, Plainsong Farm

When people of faith understand food systems issues, faith practice and food systems both change.

Nurya Love Parish is founding Executive Director of Plainsong Farm, a living laboratory for farm-based discipleship incorporated in 2019, and a priest in the Episcopal Church. Plainsong's mission is to cultivate connections between people, places and God. Through a new partnership with New City Neighbors, they will deliver over 25,000 servings of fresh produce to food access sites this year. Prior to founding Plainsong, she was Executive Producer of Eating in Place, a documentary that showed statewide on PBS in 2010 and whose live premiere featured the original Michigan Good Food Charter. Her work through and with Plainsong has been covered by Civil Eats, Food Tank, and the Duke World Food Policy Council. She continues to advocate and educate for churches to understand land holdings in social and ecological context, for Christians to work to heal the legacy of settler colonialism, and for all faith-based food work to foster greater health for both people and planet.

The Hidden Cost of Food: Luis’s Story

Teresa Hendricks, Migrant Legal Aid

From enslavement to empowerment, learn how an unlikely partnership began to restore humanity for trafficked farmworkers. 

30-year Farmworker lawyer, author, presenter, trial attorney in state and federal courts, admitted to the US Supreme Court. Founder of the Michigan Fair Food Project of Migrant Legal Aid. Lead attorney in first Farmworker class action suit for stolen wages against Ag Giant Monsanto. Aspiring advocate for a career-capping MI Farmworker Bill of Rights. Happy city-dweller who enjoys remote travel where exotic birds and a fishing boat awaits.

For the Love of Food

Ederique Goudia, Make Food Not Waste

Food can be utilized as a transformative act of love when it is rooted in community.

Chef and consultant Ederique Goudia is committed to the health and sustainability of our food system, locally and beyond. This is evident through her recent work with FoodLab Detroit, Detroit Food Academy, and Make Food Not Waste, a non-profit committed to keeping food out of landfills, slowing climate change, and creating lasting solutions to food waste. Throughout her 20 year career in the industry, she has also been a fierce advocate for child nutrition, food waste, and food insecurity. Ederique is a James Beard Foundation (JBF) Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Fellowship alumni and a JBF Boot Camp for Policy and Change alumni. Ederique had the honor of presenting at the Culinary Institute of America's International World of Flavors Conference as well as guest lecturer for Food Literacy for All, a community-academic partnership course at the University of Michigan. She is a board member of Eastside Community Network, Make Food Not Waste, a member of the Junior League of Detroit, and Slow Foods USA. 

Good Food in the Upper Peninsula

Alex Palzewicz, Northwoods Test Kitchen; Upper Peninsula Food Exchange

Sharing perspectives can help us not only relate, but open our minds to a more equitable and just food system.

Alex Palzewicz grew up in Menominee County raising small livestock and started her career in food and beverage at age 15 as an ice cream scooper. Through the years she's worked in the food industry in many roles from farm hand to line cook. She previously was the UP Local Food Coordinator for Taste the Local Difference where she had the pleasure of meeting and telling the stories of UP farmers, chefs and community members across the region. These days she manages Northwoods Test Kitchen, a small deli and shared-use kitchen located inside Barrel + Beam in Marquette. The space is dedicated to utilizing and respecting local food, with a mission to build a community through events and renting the space out to small-scale food entrepreneurs.