Our first James & Marguerite Hutchins Lecture 
of the semester, titled “Southern Hunger and the American Food System,” was presented by award-winning journalist Tracie McMillan. McMillan is author of the bestselling study The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee’s, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table (Scribners, 2012), which poses the question, “What would it take for us all to eat well?” She has written about food, labor, and class for The New York Times, the Washington Post, National Geographic, Harper’s Magazine, Mother Jones, Saveur, and Slate.
The American South is often celebrated for its rich food heritage and its powerful influence on American cuisine, but the region’s culture and politics are also linked to the darker side of food. McMillan will discuss how modern American food issues like hunger, wages, and labor are deeply tied to the history of the South. You can read more about McMillan’s work on “The New Face of Hunger” here.