Equity Eatz

Equity Eatz is a food justice and entrepreneurship curriculum that helps youth develop skills in culinary arts, product development, and marketing through the lens of the food industry. Through conceptualizing food access as a social justice issue, this curriculum encourages youth to adopt healthy nutrition practices and apply nutrition knowledge to food product development in a way that could have an impact on their families and communities. The curriculum emphasizes entrepreneurial skills through the development of a small business, which includes learning about target markets, testing and promoting products, and an introduction to business financial literacy and networking.

Equity Eatz was originally delivered to youth from the Weingart East Los Angeles (WELA) YMCA Youth Institute in 2016 as part of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health corner store conversion program Proyecto Mercado FRESCO (Fresh Market Project).