Julia Turshen creates database for underrepresented voices in food

Last fall, Julia Turshen released her latest cookbook called Feed the Resistance, which aimed to foster community and provide sustenance for the mind and soul in this era of activism. Proceeds from the book will be donated to the ACLU. Based on the response to that cookbook, and drawing on projects like Women Who Draw and Creatives of Color, Turshen embarked on a new project. The result is a database that will assist marginalized voices in food.

Acccording to Eater, the database, called Equity at the Table (EATT), is a “slick, searchable database of activists, bakers, lawyers, authors, chefs, and other food industry professionals composed of women/gender-non-conforming individuals, most of whom are people of color and in the LGBT community.”  Turshen hopes that organizers of food conferences and festivals, magazine editors, and anyone who wants to help lift others, will use the tool to find speakers, writers, and other professionals to help diversify their events and publications. Currently, the “creatives” portion (chefs, writers, stylists) is limited to people of color and queer women/gender non-conforming individuals, but the “resources” portion (lawyers, accountants, etc.) is open to all women.

As you might expect, the endeavor was expensive, and Turshen footed the bill for the startup of the project. She is accepting support for ongoing efforts via a Patreon page. She has plans for future growth, eyeing concepts such as a career board.  “We’ll see where it goes,” she told Eater. “We’ve heard from enough straight white men and I want there to be a place that listed up a lot of other voices.”