Sarah Weiner to Receive Honorary Degree from the University of Gastronomic Sciences

The activist, founder, and director of the Good Food Foundation will be awarded the degree at a ceremony on Wednesday, September 25, in Pollenzo.

On Wednesday, September 25, 2024, the University of Gastronomic Sciences will present an honorary degree to Sarah Weiner, an American brilliant young activist for sustainable food, food sovereignty, and the transition to a food system, founder and director of the Good Food Foundation.

The conferral will be held at 3 pm during the traditional Graduation Ceremony that brings together all the Pollenzo students who graduated in the year 2024.

In the proposal for the conferral of Honorary Degree in Sustainable Food Innovation and Management, Prof. Simone Cinotto states: "Sarah Weiner is one of the most important public figures and activists for sustainable food worldwide, having significantly contributed to the diffusion of the holistic culture of food, especially in the fields of food education towards young people, in particular from disadvantaged economic and social situations, and the promotion of independent farmers, artisan processors, and retailers who constitute the living and vibrant network of a sustainable food system both from an environmental and socio-economic point of view."

Bio

Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Sarah Weiner was first exposed to the sustainable food movement when her mother gifted her a collection of essays on Slow Food.

She graduated with honors in 2002 from Dartmouth College, earning a bachelor of arts in economics.

After graduating, she received a Dartmouth Reynolds Fellowship for post-graduation study, exploring the underlying factors leading to Italy's strong regional food culture and how the US could emulate it. Her studies brought her to the master's degree program at the ITAL.COOK School of Italian Regional Cooking in Jesi, Italy.

Afterwards, Sarah secured an internship at Slow Food's headquarters in Bra, Italy, that evolved into a full-time position at the Slow Food International Office, where she wrote the first edition of The Slow Food Companion, which debuted at the first Terra Madre in 2004.

While at Slow Food, Sarah had the opportunity to meet the pioneer of the American food movement, Alice Waters, who later became her assistant and moved to Berkeley.

Working by Alice Waters' side, Sarah oversaw special projects; in 2006, Sarah opened the Slow Food Nation office, creating the largest sustainable food event ever to take place in the USA.

After the success of Slow Food Nation in 2008, Sarah reunited with Alice Waters in 2009 to develop Art.Food.Hope, a dozen simultaneous, seated dinners cooked by the nation's top chefs, held at private homes in Washington D.C. The event was hosted on the eve of Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguration.

A sabbatical in England next led Sarah to the Soil Association's Patrick Holden: this sabbatical quickly turned into a professional engagement where she produced an event uniting 20,000 guests and 300 organic farmers for two days.

In 2010, Sarah returned to the Bay Area, channeling the momentum from the last few years into a partnership to establish the Good Food Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to transforming ideas into action that could bring the USA closer to a good, clean, and fair food system.

Most notably, the Good Food Foundation was responsible for the birth of the Good Food Awards in 2011. A celebration of American artisan food and drink producers who create tasty, authentic, and responsible products, the Good Food Awards unites thought leaders from every sector of the food industry-grocers, chefs, food writers, farmers, activists, academics, and artisans-to choose the most delicious, sustainable, and socially responsible products from all over the country.

The initiative has since tripled in size and is considered the highest honor in the artisan food world, called "the Oscars of food" by Newsweek magazine.

Now in its 14th year, the program has honored over 1,100 food and drink makers from 49 states, Guam and Washington, D.C., effectively directing media attention and sales to the winners - farmers and small, sustainable food business owners.

In 2013, the Good Food Foundation launched the Good Food Guild, a membership-based organization uniting over 600 food and drink crafters that meet the Good Food Awards standards. In 2015, two additional projects were launched: The Good Food Merchants Collaborative, which brings together thirty top grocers from around the country, and the Good Food Mercantile, an "un-trade show for tasty, authentic, and responsible food," which brings together over 150 food and drink makers with 300-700 retailers three times a year.

In 2017, Sarah was chosen as the only representative of the food industry to be a Fellow for the National Committee on US-China Relations' Young Leaders Forum in Guangzhou, China. In 2018, Sarah was asked to be a mentor at the first National Public Radio's How I Built This live summit, which invited some of the podcast's 19 million per month listeners to take part in a live, interactive event.

Through the Good Food Awards and its sister events, Sarah has emerged as a true pioneer of the Good Food movement, enabling the American craft food industry to evolve and thrive while elevating the voices of those who play a critical role in supporting independent farmers, ranchers, and fishermen across the nation.

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