Why is it that Black and Brown communities are more likely to experience 'food insecurity' than other communities? What is it about the term 'food desert' that lacks depth and truth when telling the stories and geographies of food access in this country? This session will dive into what the term 'Food Apartheid' means & how a deeply racially divided food system came to be—where Black neighborhoods in the U.S. are more likely to experience a lack of fresh food access resulting in higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension in Black communities. We will cover, chronologically, the historical realities that led to the inequality we see today such as Jim Crow Apartheid, Redlining, urban renewal (a.k.a. Urban/Black Removal), and gentrification. We connect this issue of Food Apartheid back to the work of the Black Food Justice Movement and what role Rooted East is playing at a local level in East Knoxville.