Kathy Underhill is a nationally recognized leader and policy expert in solving hunger and was the founding CEO of Hunger Free Colorado. To honor her legacy, Hunger Free Colorado’s board of directors created the Kathy Underhill Scholarship Award to recognize an individual leading change as it relates to hunger and healthy food access. Fatuma Emmad, co-founder of FrontLine Farming, was selected as the first-year award recipient.
“Fatuma is a social justice warrior who also eloquently and beautifully expresses her passion for making healthy food accessible to all,” said Olga Gonzalez, executive director of Cultivando and selection committee member. “She demonstrates a genuine interest not only in cultivating the land but also in cultivating meaningful relationships among diverse people who come from all walks of life and from various countries and cultures.”
The spirit of the Kathy Underhill Scholarship Award is to recognize a community member who is changing hearts and minds in the hunger space with advocacy, policy, or community engagement through the lens of health equity. It comes with a $1000 scholarship to be used for professional development related to the awardee’s career and work within the hunger space. Fatuma Emmad was selected from a strong group of nominees by a committee composed of Hunger Free Colorado board members, community advocates, and the award namesake, Kathy Underhill.
In Emmad’s reception speech she shared:
“We know that our food system is broken. We don’t need statistics to know racism is alive and well and centers itself in our most powerful weapons. Food is a weapon…We have created systems in which those who are the most abused by it are not allowed into the room where policies are made…I am proud to stand here with you all, my colleagues, because as we know that food is a weapon, it is also a shield…I lean on the history of the many women who have made their kitchens a space for us all to be authentically ourselves and to be fed. They showed us how to communicate love through food.”
Fatuma Emmad is the co-founder of FrontLine Farming, a food and farmer advocacy group focusing on food growing, education, sovereignty and justice in the Front Range, and affiliate professor at Regis University in the Community Food Systems minor. Fatuma was born in Denver and raised in Denver and Ethiopia. Fatuma is currently entering her tenth year as a farm manager or farm operations director. Before becoming a farmer, Fatuma was a political scientist who engaged in issues affecting marginalized farming communities. She’s currently a member of the Sustainable Food Council for the City of Denver, a co-chair for the City’s Good Food Purchasing Policy Group and is a selected fellow for Transformational Leaders for Change.