Malik Yakini & Lanay Gilbert-Williams discuss the Detroit Food Sovereignty Network

Everything Co-op with Vernon Oakes

April 4, 2024 Vernon interviews Malik Kenyatta Yakini, Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN), and Lanay Gilbert-Williams, Board President of the Detroit People’s Food Co-op. Vernon and his guests discuss the Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network and the Grand Opening of the Detroit Food Commons. Malik Kenyatta Yakini is an activist and educator who is committed to freedom and justice for African people in particular, and humanity in general. Yakini is a co-founder and the Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, which operates a seven-acre farm in Detroit and spearheaded efforts to establish the Detroit Food Policy Council. He served as a member of the Michigan Food Policy Council from 2008 - 2010. From 2011 - 2013 he served on the steering committee of Uprooting Racism Planting Justice. He is a co-founder and on the leadership team of the National Black Food and Justice Alliance. Lanay Gilbert-Williams is a native Detroiter who serves as the Board President of the Detroit People’s Food Co-op. She founded the Detroit’s Brown Moms Sisterhood Circle, a system of support for African-American mothers, especially those whose children are in the foster care system. She is the President of the Wildemere Park Neighborhood Association and is the Youth Program Coordinator for Know Allegiance Nation. As a proud Mom of 6, she is dedicated to assisting in the development of solutions that model nation and community-building for Black youth.