Kiki Louya: A Detroit For All

In the early 2000s, eating local was believed to be transformative for our food systems. Those changes may not have come true, but what happens when we revisit local food today—this time, emphasizing equity, coalition-building, and approaches specific to place?

Kiki Louya is a Congolese-American chef and entrepreneur who founded the all-women hospitality group, Nest Egg. Her two businesses, the Farmer’s Hand and FOLK, have flourished in Detroit, building new industry ideas for fair wages, sustainability, and equity. We chat with Kiki more on how progress for Detroit can be inclusive of all, and the relationships it takes to make these ambitions a reality.

Kiki’s visit comes as part of our “Cooking Across the Black Diaspora” series, a themed line-up for Chewing the Fat. In collaboration with the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale, and the Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration, the series commemorates Black History Month, and the 50th anniversary for both the Afro-American Cultural Center and Yale Department of African American Studies.

about us:

website: https://www.sustainablefood.yale.edu/chewing-the-fat-podcast

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Chewing the Fat is a podcast from the Yale Sustainable Food Program. We cover people making change in the complex world of food and agriculture. We’re home to brilliant minds: activists, academics, chefs, entrepreneurs, farmers, journalists, policymakers, and scientists (to name a few!). Taken together, their work represents a reimagining of mainstream food movements, challenging myths and tropes as well as inspiring new ways of collaborating.

The podcast is an aural accompaniment to our on-campus Chewing the Fat speaker series, aiming to broaden our content beyond New Haven. Episodes are released every two weeks, featuring interviews, storytelling and more.

On the farm, in the classroom, and around the world, the Yale Sustainable Food Program (YSFP) grows food-literate leaders. We create opportunities for students to experience food, agriculture, and sustainability as integral parts of their education and everyday lives. For more information, please visit sustainablefood.yale.edu.