Unlike most courses at UM, Food Literacy for All is co-designed, co-planned, and co-instructed by a team of UM faculty and community leaders in Detroit and Ann Arbor. The Food Literacy for All team has also included rotating SFSI coordinators, UM Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs), and UM College of Literature, Science, and the Arts Technology Services representatives who have supported the course academically and logistically. See below to learn more about the leadership team from 2017-2025. 

From 2017-2025, Food Literacy for All engaged over 6,000 community members. Before the pandemic, this included people who attended the class in-person in Ann Arbor and through community events with the guest speakers and partner organizations. For example, Frances Moore Lappé participated in a Downtown Detroit event with the Detroit Food Policy Council (2017); Fernando Funes joined a panel discussion with Detroit urban agriculture growers (2018); Wayne Roberts led two workshops, one hosted by the Detroit Food Policy Council and another by the Michigan Local Food Council Network (2019) ;Leah Penniman joined a group of Detroit-based women chefs and farmers for lunch in Detroit (2020); and Nicole Taylor spoke at an African American FoodWays dinner hosted by Zingerman’s (2020). 

As the course moved to its virtual format after the pandemic,  Zoom Webinars increased the accessibility and attention of the course on a global scale. To continue fostering valuable local connections, some classes are hybrid, held simultaneously on Zoom and in-person on the UM campus. In 2025, four classes were held in the hybrid format.  As seen in the table below, community participants have been diverse across racial, ethnic, and educational backgrounds.

Out of the 946 people who registered for the course in 2025 as “community members” (not including the 212 enrolled students), 597 self-identified as coming from a diverse array of job sectors. The largest percentage, above 10% each, were students, educators, farmers, nutritionists or public health workers, or from nonprofits and community organizations. A smaller percentage were involved in research, corporate or business, health or wellness, government or policy, retired or unemployed, and artists or creatives. 

Since 2017, each Food Literacy for All class session has been recorded and published on YouTube and the SFSI website. As of August 2025, Food Literacy for All videos have been viewed over 73,900 times. YouTube data over the last eight years shows that viewers tune in from around the world, and the total views grow each year, indicating that people continue to engage with past videos and that they remain relevant. The countries with viewership (in order of the highest to lowest amount of views) include the United States, India, Canada, Russia, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Italy, Denmark, Australia, Kenya, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Belize, Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, Brazil, Morocco, Mexico, Netherlands, Philippines, Sweden, Vietnam, and South Africa.

When the 2017-2020 in-person course was based in Ann Arbor, 40% of community attendees who attended class in those years indicated they were not from Ann Arbor (n = 496). 18% of community attendees stated they were from Metro Detroit, and 9% from the City of Detroit. Much like the national and global visibility the course gets from its YouTube views, during the live Zoom Webinar sessions in 2025, community attendees tuned in from 32 different U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and 11 countries outside of the United States.

In 2020, when the course was first offered virtually, 53% of community attendees had no affiliation with the University. More recently, in 2025, 36% of community attendees had no affiliation with the University (n=458), suggesting that unenrolled students, faculty, and staff are increasingly tuning in. 

Recognizing the importance of in-person events to build and maintain relationships, Food Literacy for All has ensured that some class sessions are on campus for students and the public to attend. Currently, the two main in-person events, gathering hundreds of people annually, are Food as Resistance and Fast Food for Thought. 

Introduced in the Winter 2024 semester, Food as Resistance is an annual event held in partnership with Michigan Dining. Taking place in January as part of the UM Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium, Food as Resistance serves as the course kick-off and welcomes enrolled Food Literacy for All students and members of the community. The event is also livestreamed and recorded for a national and international audience. The keynote speaker that resonates with the theme of Food as Resistance is determined in  collaboration with community partners at the Detroit Food Policy Council, Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network, and Oakland Avenue Urban Farm. Past Food as Resistance speakers include Shiloh Maples (2024 speaker), an Anishinaabe seed keeper, educator, and community organizer, and Tambra Raye Stevenson (2025 speaker), the Founder and CEO of WANDA (Women, Advancing, Dietetics and Nutrition). 

Food as Resistance drew an audience of 300 attendees each year. Michigan Dining has been a valuable partner for Food as Resistance by collaborating with their talented Michigan Dining chefs for the catering. Michigan Dining chefs are asked to prepare recipes that represent their personal view of Food as Resistance. Some of the past dishes at Food as Resistance have included whitefish chermoula, chicken kadai with tawa paratha, fried catfish, Brazilian cheese bread, Caribbean chicken thigh with curry, and caramel-soaked banana fosters cake – dishes that have then been added after the event to the Michigan Dining catering menu. From the Food as Resistance event, the University of Michigan received Gold in the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion/Social Justice category from the National Association of College and University Food Service Sustainability Award.

The second community-building event hosted by Food Literacy for All in recent years is Fast Food for Thought, an event that was held for a number of years as a separate, Fall event. Fast Food for Thought now serves as an annual closing of the course in April. Since 2017, Fast Food for Thought has gathered ten interdisciplinary UM faculty, staff, and graduate-level students each year to present 5-minute bite-sized flash talks on diverse food systems and agriculture topics. Fast Food for Thought provides a platform for UM faculty and staff to amplify their food systems research, projects, and work to the university and broader community. Approximately 300 people attend each year, joining in person and on the Zoom Webinar. 

Some of the Fast Food for Thought talk titles from 2025 included, “Stuck in Your Teeth: The Ancient History of Diet,” “The Princess and the Pea(nut): The Cash Crop Beneath the Mattress of Colonial Modernity,” “Harvesting Inequity: The Role of Work for Women in Agriculture,” “Smallholder Farmers Need More Agroecology, Not Inaccessible Technologies,” and “Envisioning Alternative Campus Food Systems: For Students, By Students.” After the talks in 2025, students and community members mingled over delicious bites prepared by Chef SouFy and Chef Angus Bush of Red Tail Catering (pictured below). 

Food Literacy for All increased overall interest in sustainable food systems for both students and community members. While response sizes have been small for post-course surveys (e.g., 41 in 2025), which admittedly could be drawing on only the biggest fans of the course, nearly all of the respondents (93%) have consistently indicated that the course increased their interest in learning more about sustainable food systems.

The impacts that respondents cited most often include (1) a non-traditional community-centered hybrid learning format, (2) community connections, (3) relationship-building with invited speakers, (4) diverse or new understandings of sustainable food systems, and (5) personal, academic, or professional growth. The following information is taken from a compilation of five post-course surveys, four university teaching evaluations, registration forms, YouTube Analytics, and Zoom Webinar reports. Please see the bottom of this webpage for more detailed methods.

1. Hybrid Course Format

First, survey respondents noted that, both in 2020 and 2025, the hybrid course format initiated after the pandemic, along with YouTube recordings, offers advantages in increased engagement, accessibility, and flexibility for students and the public. Many also commented on the course’s attention to community-based and non-traditional perspectives.

2. Community Connections and Capacity Building

Second, Food Literacy for All promotes community connections on and off the campus. As previously described, annual Food Literacy for All events, such as Food as Resistance and Fast Food for Thought, gather hundreds of students, UM faculty/staff, and community members on campus. The unique community-academic partnership fosters enriching and dynamic learning for students and the public. As described by Malik Yakini (former Food Literacy for All community co-instructor and Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Sovereignty Network), “One of the most significant aspects of the Food Literacy for All course is that it modeled what a university/community partnership can look like.” The community-academic partnership model also promotes lifelong learning for UM graduates, as a student enrolled in Food Literacy for All in 2025 stated, “Now that I am graduating, I will plan to join as a community member next year.”

Furthermore, Food Literacy for All builds capacity for local food system leaders by providing a weekly opportunity to step back from their daily work challenges and reflect on larger systems that take place on community, national, and global levels. Community members not only participate in shaping Food Literacy for All and attending class sessions, but they also actively contribute their perspectives to class discussions. A student from 2018 reflected, “I loved learning in a setting where community members are present and active members of both sides of the dialogue. It was great to be able to have guest lecturers, but it was also pretty great that the community could join us in asking questions and continuing the dialogue of the lecture. [This is] my favorite class I’ve taken at this University for that reason, as well as the invaluable content.” 

For most UM students, Food Literacy for All is the only time in their academic career that they will sit (in person or virtually) in class next to farmers, nonprofit professionals, chefs, and other community members. Over one third (37%) of students enrolled in the 2020 course agreed that “the mix of students and community attendees in the audience” was one of the most valuable parts of the course, and 92% of attendees agreed or strongly agreed that “the participation of community members enhanced their learning.” The other aspects attendees found most valuable were the mix of activists, academics, and authors (73%), the diversity of topics (85%), and the strong focus on speakers of color (63%). 

4. Diverse Understanding of Sustainable Food Systems

Fourth, the course initiates or strengthens a diverse understanding of sustainable food systems. Food Literacy for All invites speakers with diverse perspectives, some of which may be challenging or controversial for different participants. A course participant in 2018 shared, “I looked forward to Tuesday evenings since I knew I was going to walk out of class with a new perspective.” 

In addition, Food Literacy for All prioritizes and uplifts historically underrepresented perspectives in the food systems and agricultural fields. The course values racial, economic, and social justice, and therefore seeks speakers who uphold similar passions in their work, businesses, farms, research, and organizations. Course participants in 2022 stated that Food Literacy for All, “affirmed what I love about food and how passionate I am about changing the system,” and “showed me how many careers are possible with food systems work.” A course participant in 2018 reflected, “This class has been a very valuable resource to my understanding of how broken the food system and, frankly, our society have become. Please keep this class going because more people should be given the same opportunity to understand the food system and potential avenues for change that this class reveals.” 

When asked an open-ended question about how the course impacted their current work, studies, or future aspirations, some students shared about wanting to grow their own food and/or source local food, support communities of color in their fight for equitable food systems, and center racial justice and sustainable food systems in their future careers, volunteer work, and life.

5. Growth

Finally, many Food Literacy for All participants experience personal, academic, and professional growth from the course, whether they are new or deeply committed to food systems work. 

Food Literacy for All also complements existing food systems classes on campus, especially courses associated with the undergraduate Food and Environment Minor in LSA and the Program in the Environment, as well as the Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Food Systems. For example, several instructors have built Food Literacy for All into their syllabi by offering extra credit to students who attend particular classes. Instructors at Universities across the country have also assigned Food Literacy for All videos as a part of their syllabus. 

As a result of the strong relationships and trust formed between SFSI and the community co-instructors, since 2017, SFSI has offered the SFSI Urban Agriculture Internship with several of our Food Literacy for All community partners’ farms. D-Town Farm (Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network) and Oakland Avenue Urban Farm (Detroit) partnered in 2020 with the UM Campus Farm (Ann Arbor). They were joined by Cadillac Farms (Detroit) and Growing Hope (Ypsilanti) in 2022. A total of 25 UM students have engaged in the Urban Agriculture Internship. 

Food Literacy for All has also inspired several similar courses at UM. In 2018, Poverty Solutions consulted with SFSI to develop a course that is open to the public and based on Food Literacy for All. In 2019, Taubman College faculty, along with the Associate Dean of LSA, received funding to incorporate a community-academic partnership course that is inspired by Food Literacy for All. In addition, initiated by Britt Redd and Urban Planning students, “Radical Planning” is a student-led, speaker-series style course that has referenced the Food Literacy for All model. Currently in its fourth iteration in the Winter 2026 semester, “Radical Planning” is similar to Food Literacy for All in that it invites practitioners and community organizers to share lessons and tactics from their work. As activists working in real communities, numerous radical planners have inspired students, faculty, and staff with their visions and provided practical advice for on-the-ground change-making. 

Food Literacy for All has been featured in several news outlets since the course launched in 2017:

• Michigan Dining (February 2025) “MLK Jr. Symposium Food as Freedom”
• Michigan Daily (January 2025) “‘Food Literacy for All’ hosts talk about food justice, cultural resilience”
• SEAS News (December 2024) “SEAS master’s student Sami Maldonado: Connecting food and justice”
• SEAS Events (February 2022) “Food Literacy for All Session – How the Other Half Eats: the Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America”
• Center for Academic Innovation (March 2021) “Food Literacy for All Brings New Cultural, Regional perspectives Together to Discuss a Just Food System”
• Engaged Michigan (April 2019) “Food Literacy: Why what we eat matters”  
• Michigan Daily (January 2019) “Food sustainability course brings in high profile speakers in a University-community partnership”
• All About Ann Arbor (January 2019) “Food systems sustainability initiative Food Literacy for All kicks off its 2019 season”
• Detroit Metro Times (December 2018) “Food Literacy For All course will bring national leaders to Michigan for lecture series”
• Current Magazine (December 2018) “Planting Seeds for Food Literacy”
• It’s Hot in Here Podcast (February 2018) “The Founders of Food Literacy for All”
• University Record (Feb 2017) “New food systems course opens doors to community”

The Sustainable Food Systems Initiative continues to seek long-term funding to ensure the longevity of Food Literacy for All. Over the first five years of the course, 27 units on campus and a small number of external organizations contributed funding for speaker travel costs and honoraria, Community Co-Instructor salaries, recording, and other course costs. In recent years, the UM School for Environment & Sustainability, Program in the Environment (PitE), and the Center for the Education of Women (CEW+) have been the main sources of financial support, and particularly the LSA/SEAS Program in the Environment (PitE). PitE committed student tuition revenue generated from the course to funding Graduate Student Instructor positions for many years, the Community Co-Instructor role since 2024, and in 2026, a soon-to-be-hired full-time Lecturer III position that will serve as the permanent Faculty Instructor for the course.  

After nine years of Food Literacy for All, student enrollment in the course remains high and continues to grow. Community engagement is expanding and diversifying to a more global level. 

Food Literacy for All was evaluated in the following ways:

1. A 10-question online RSVP form that community attendees were required to complete before each session that they attended (2017-2020). In 2022, participants completed an 8-question survey connected to the Zoom Webinar registration.
2. A post-course survey was sent to all community registrants and enrolled students at the end of the semester. In 2025, n=41. In 2022, n=168. In 2020, n=95. In 2019, n=182. In 2018, n=138. In 2017, n=30.
3. An anonymous teaching evaluation was sent to all enrolled students by the UM Office of the Registrar. In 2025, 72 of the 212 enrolled students responded to this survey for a 34% response rate. In 2019, 69 of the 146 enrolled students responded to this survey for a 47% response rate. In 2018, 57 of the 122 enrolled students responded to the survey for a 47% response rate. In 2017, 67 of the 135 enrolled students responded to the survey for a 50% response rate.
4. Virtual/remote engagement was analyzed with YouTube Analytics, data provided by UM Informational Technology Services (ITS), and Zoom Webinar reports.