06/18/2025
DUNE WON A JAMES BEARD IMPACT AWARD 🥇🥂🧑🍳🥳⚡️and it was the honor of a life to go to Chicago to celebrate him, attend the awards, and support his ongoing work.
I’m incredibly grateful for Dune’s leadership and friendship. I’ve long admired his activism and work, protecting over a million acres in Alaska from logging, drilling, and development. He’s also led food sovereignty work with to provide ancestral food to his Eyak community and help preserve cultural and culinary customs. And now, together we’re collaborating to further his work of supporting a Native-led kelp industry 🌿🌊🧑🌾
It felt strange to be at such a fancy event, amidst the fear and current state of our country battling democracy vs. fascism. Almost every winner mentioned their immigrant roots, the openheartedness of the hospitality industry to provide jobs to formerly incarcerated/ undocumented people or commitment to use their platform to fight for justice.
We have a long way to go but it was such a reminder that THE FOOD INDUSTRY can be such a force for good- from regenerative practices, to equitable jobs, to circular economies, and providing nutrition 🌾🌽🍅🥬 let’s keep building, loving, fighting, and creating the good 🚣♀️
