Growing Leaders First Multimedia Immigrant Food Writing Workshop Supports New Voices in Food Issues

By Alexa Van de Walle, Treasurer, TCT Board of Trustees

Last month, The Culinary Trust launched its Growing Leaders Food Writing Program with an action-packed multimedia journalism workshop, “Food in 2 Worlds”, which focused on telling immigrant food stories using sound.
A diverse group of 12 journalists traveled to New York from near and far including from San Francisco, Austin, Charleston and Calgary, and represented cultures from around the world – Mexico, China, The Philippines and Rwanda among others.
All the participants worked on their stories throughout the weekend with the workshop staff, developing characters and visualizing scenes. The workshop culminated in a pitch panel with participants pitching their ideas to an impressive group of highly engaged radio editors. Panelists gave the writers candid feedback and several participants ended the workshop with assignment from NPR and Public Radio International!
Teams hit the vibrant streets of New York to practice interview techniques and capture sounds and voices on the recording equipment; they also learned basic audio production. The afternoon spilled into the evening for some participants as they climbed a steep learning curve for the editing software and pieced together the words and sounds of their stories.
IACP Members and The Culinary Trust Professional Development Grant Recipients were among the presenters and participants: Kathy Gunst, resident chef of NPR’s Here and Now Kathy Gunst, presented.; Marge Perry, writer, chef and educator attended; and, Kenrick Mercado, chef, writer and prior TCT grant recipient traveled from the west coast. Kathleen Flinn, TCT’s Board Chair joined TCT Treasurer and author of this article, Alexa Van de Walle.
The workshop was the first of a series of offerings from The Trust’s new partnership with The New School’s award winning “Feet in 2 Worlds” the 10-year old radio and web journalism project, led by IACP Conference Workshop Leader, John Rudolph, and took place over two and a half days in mid-October. The Growing Leaders Food Writing Program is funded in part with a generous grant from The Julia Child Foundation.
> To Donate to the 2016 Growing Leaders Food Writing Program CLICK HERE
> Listen to Food in 2 Worlds Audio Postcard Stories on Cowbird
> Read The New School’s Food in 2 Worlds Magazine
> Applications Open for Food Writing Fellowships Across the U.S. through December 4