Getting people together to celebrate, mourn, pay tribute and experience joy: It’s all part of queer culture, and it’s all part of food culture. So, how can folks connect the two? The Queer Food Foundation is a place to start. In July 2020, Vanessa Parish, Jona Beliu, Mavis-Jay Sanders and Gabrielle Lenart founded QFF as a mutual aid resource.
For panels, Parish says she tries to feature people from various U.S. regions — “that way, we’re getting a nice perspective from different places.” They’re also working on expanding into food policy, collaborating with agriculture organizations like Black Farmer Fund. “We’re meeting other organizations with aligned goals and missions, and we are kind of joining forces,” Parish says, adding that they would rather help organizations with programming already in place than create their own.