Madison Reporter

MADISON, WI -- The Library Takeover program at Madison Public Library is introducing a Full Circle Food Usage event, organized by a team of four local women. The event will take place at Meadowridge Library on June 8 from 11am - 3pm, offering families an opportunity to learn how to grow, blend, prepare and cook affordable, healthy and delicious food.

The event will consist of four hands-on workshops led by the members of the Library Takeover team. These workshops are designed to educate participants about sustainable food pathways and include sessions on meal prepping, blending herbal teas, juicing, and seed starting.

“Food sustainability, holistic healthcare practices, and increasing access to healthy foods are all revolutionary acts. Black and Indigenous people are negatively impacted the most when it comes to disparities in health care coverage, racism within healthcare systems, discrimination from healthcare providers, medical negligence and biological warfare by way of food deserts and processed foods,” said Adwoa Asentu, a member of the Library Takeover team. “We want to empower our communities to take their health and their family’s health into their own hands."

The team comprises four Black and Indigenous women–Ciara Hartzog, Adwoa Asentu (aka Britney Woods), Ciera Carter, and Shyelle Aikens–each with a unique background and skillset. They applied for Library Takeover in January 2024 and after being selected went through an event planning bootcamp series provided by the library.

“Attending bootcamps…has most definitely made us all better event planners,” said Adwoa. “We also realized that all of the information we have gained through this Library Takeover experience has given us the know-how we need to expand this event into more than just a one-time thing."

The upcoming event on June 8 is family-friendly with incentives for advance registration including automatic entry into a giveaway for free items such as grocery store gift cards, cooking utensils and even a cold-press juicer.

“We want people to walk away from this event feeling empowered, inspired and uplifted, and having increased their understanding of food as medicine,” said Asentu. “We want to dispel the myth that healthy food is bland, boring, or expensive."

Library Takeover is made possible thanks to generous donations from the Madison Public Library Foundation and TruStage.

About Madison Public Library

Madison Public Library’s tradition of promoting education, literacy and community involvement has enriched the City of Madison for nearly 150 years.  Visit the library online at www.madisonpubliclibrary.org or @madisonpubliclibrary on Facebook and Instagram.

About Library Takeover

Library Takeover is a program where teams of 3-4 people get support from Madison Public Library to take their idea for a community event from the planning phase to execution. This year’s mentors are Sarah Akawa, Rob Franklin (Rob Dz), Araceli Esparza, and Charles Payne. Learn more about Library Takeover and the selected teams for 2024 online at madpl.org/librarytakeover.