DATS: World Food in the Triad

PANEL DISCUSSION
Reynolds Place, MRCA
Sunday, Oct.10, 2010
3:00 — 4:30 pm

YouTube: All roads lead to food (How one refugee group thinks about food)

YouTube: H Bec talking about her garden (What's growing in a refugee's backyard?)

Guilford County is the largest refugee resettlement county in the state. About 50-60,000 of the area’s 430,000 residents are immigrants or refugees. How have new populations from all over the world changed the food landscape of the Piedmont? What can we learn from our neighbors? How have their food traditions contributed to the explosion of food diversity we now see in ethnic food stores, restaurants and farmers’ markets? What is their economic and social impact?

In this panel discussion we will explore how our ideas about food reflect our ideas about culture — ours and those of immigrants and refugees. Most discussions about immigrants and refugees are about problems. North Carolina's obese population now tops 25+%. What solutions might we find amongst immigrant and refugee diets, foods, traditions and lifestyles as we struggle with staggering health issues and their consequences?

PARTICIPANTS

Jigna Dharod, PhD is Assistant Professor, Department of Nutrition at University of North Carolina Greensboro. Her research interests include understanding the different coping mechanisms low-income families use to reduce the severity and incidence of food insecurity; determination of the relationship between food insecurity and social capital and its influence on health outcomes, such as body weight among different immigrants and refugee groups in the US; the use microbiological and other indicators, such as attitude towards food safety, to understand food safety risks in preparation and storage of weaning foods among immigrants and refugee populations settled in the US.

Sharon Morrison, PhD, is Associate Professor at UNCG Department of Health Education and currently, the Director of the Undergraduate Program. Dr. Morrison’s research interests include social aspects of HIV disparities among subcultures of women, particularly women in the African Diaspora. She is examining the role of social capital in HIV risk, transmission awareness and prevention among US African and Latina immigrant women, and young women and girls in the rural Caribbean. She is also interested in the use of media and performing arts for HIV outreach and prevention intervention in South Africa. Dr. Morrison also conducts research related to immigrant and refugee health and welfare. She is conducting research related to cultural adaptation and health outcomes of new and recent immigrants in the US. She is involved in designing and implementing culturally appropriate interventions for limited English proficient (LEP) immigrant individuals and families.

Chram Rode is Assistant Manager at Goat Lady Dairy and was a farmer in Vietnam’s Central Highlands before he came to the US in 2006. He is a Montagnard from the Bahnar tribe.

Lee Walton is an artist whose work takes many forms from drawing, performance, net art, video, public performances, social architectures and more. Walton has exhibited and created projects for museums, institutions and cities both nationally and internationally. His public art is often situational and involves collaboration with numerous participants. Walton is an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. His work can be viewed at leewalton.com. With Donovan McKnight (co-director of Face to Face Greensboro and Spare Room) he orchestrated the Super G Experiential Residency Program held at Super G Mart International Food, a popular shopping destination for multicultural Greensboro.

Daniel Woodham is the CSA (community sponsored agriculture) Manager at Goat Lady Dairy in Randolph County and the former ESOL director at Montagnard Dega Association, an ethnic-based community organization based in Greensboro. After operating his own successful CSA (NIMBY Gardens), he has helped Goat Lady launch their highly successful CSA this year. Daniel is a regular vendor at the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market.

Andrew J. Young (moderator) is an artist, educator, game designer and advocate. For two years he volunteered and then worked at Montagnard Dega Association as an ESOL teacher and employment specialist in order to study and understand the community. He worked with leaders to translate the US census form, health information and US citizenship questions, established translation guidelines, and produced Web-based videos to address the lack of basic information available to this mostly preliterate population. He is currently working with his wife, Betsy Renfrew, and backstrap weavers from Southeast Asia to together preserve and promote traditional weaving through a sustainable model.