ASAN welcomed Marian Mwenja to the team in early August 2020. Marian has a multi-layered role, serving both as an Admin & Communications Assistant, and as our first-ever Justice Fellow. As Admin & Communications Assistant, Marian manages ASAN’s social media, contributes to e-blasts/newsletters, and makes sure the organization’s gears stay running smoothly. As the Justice Fellow, they coordinate the formation of ASAN’s Justice Committee, and deepen ASAN’s partnerships with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) led organizations doing food justice and food sovereignty work around the state and Southeast region.
Marian, a Birmingham native, grew into a deep love for food justice while studying at Swarthmore College (PA). Through their studies of environmental and black studies, Marian began to understand the scope, severity, and danger of the interconnected crises of climate chaos and anti-Black racism and the exciting role that food justice can play in moving through both of these crises with dignity and healing. You can often find Marian on their meditation cushion with a warm cup of ginger tea, tending their sweet garden, or learning how to draw on the powerful medicines within plants. They are grateful to be a part of an organization that, in centering justice, creates possibilities beyond white supremacist domination and exploitation of peoples and the planet.
