Workshop 2: Storytelling for Impact
On Thursday, April 2, 2026, Cultural Harvest returned to HUB 340 for its second workshop, Storytelling for Impact: Turning Memories into Creative Expression.
While Workshop 1 focused on food, culture, equity, and sustainability, Workshop 2 invited students to move from reflection into creation. The central question of the afternoon was simple but powerful: How can a memory about food become a story that moves people?
Students were encouraged to think about food not only as something they remember, but as something they can communicate through writing, visual media, public health messaging, branding, and other forms of creative expression.
Guest Speakers
- Dr. Elaine Faustman, Professor in the UW Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and Director of the Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication
- Tony Wilson, Founder of Papa Tony鈥檚 Hot Sauce
Workshop Focus
Dr. Elaine Faustman began with her own family and cultural history. Her presentation traced the role of food in her upbringing, including her Pennsylvania Dutch heritage, her parents鈥� experiences living through the Great Depression, and childhood memories of visiting farms, collecting eggs, preserving food, and learning how food connects to labor, scarcity, family, and survival.
From there, she connected personal food memory to her scientific career. Trained as a chemist, biologist, toxicologist, and pharmacologist, Dr. Faustman showed students how food can be both nourishing and risky depending on preparation, dose, environment, and context. Her presentation introduced examples such as cassava, fugu fish, sassafras tea, mercury, pesticides, arsenic, PFAS, natural toxins, and selenium.
Her talk showed that food stories can carry science, history, and public health all at once. She also shared examples from community-led public health work, including STOP Spillover projects focused on reducing zoonotic disease risks along animal value chains with women market sellers in Sierra Leone near the Gola Rainforest.
Dr. Faustman closed with a broader understanding of public health: not simply the absence of disease, but also wellbeing shaped by spirit, culture, food and water security, access to education and healthcare, and built environments that support families and communities. This message helped students see why food storytelling matters. A meal can open conversations about health, environment, migration, family, risk, and care.
Tony Wilson then brought the workshop theme into entrepreneurship, family, and community-building. His presentation centered on how Papa Tony鈥檚 Hot Sauce grew from family, love, and creativity. His slides emphasized that food is more than what people eat 鈥� it is memory, identity, culture, language, and connection.
Wilson shared how his hot sauce began with a simple moment: cooking dinner for his family. Through storytelling, that moment became something larger 鈥� a product, a brand, and a community. He encouraged students to understand that people connect to creative work not only because of what it is, but because of the story and emotion behind it. One of the strongest messages from his presentation was that your story is the most important ingredient.
Together, Dr. Faustman and Tony Wilson showed two different but connected ways of understanding food storytelling. One approached food through heritage, toxicology, and public health. The other approached food through family, authenticity, and entrepreneurship. Their talks met at the same truth: food is never only food. It carries memory, culture, identity, science, love, and impact.
Interactive Activity: Storytelling Formats
The workshop also included a student-centered activity designed to help participants transform personal memories into public-facing stories.
Students reflected individually on a personal memory related to food, culture, health, people, place, or emotion. Then, shared it with the group.
This activity helped students see how the same memory could change depending on how it was framed. A family meal could become a social media story. A childhood snack could become a public health message. A cultural dish could become the opening of a talk. A homemade recipe could become a brand story rooted in identity and care.
Speakers were invited to walk around, observe, engage in conversation with students, and offer feedback as groups developed their ideas. The activity created a space where students could move from 鈥淚 remember this food鈥� to 鈥渢his is the story I want to tell, and this is how I want others to feel when they hear it.鈥�
Continuing the Conversation
Workshop 2 closed by encouraging students to continue developing submissions for UW Cultural Harvest Day on May 21, 2026. Whether through art, writing, video, campaign design, or another creative format, students were invited to turn their food memories into stories that could be shared with the broader UW community.
The session reminded participants that no story is too small to matter. A dinner, a spice, a family recipe, a market visit, or a homemade sauce can become the beginning of something meaningful. When told with honesty and care, food stories can connect people across cultures, disciplines, and lived experiences.
Featured Slide Decks
Dr. Elaine Faustman鈥檚 presentation connected food heritage, toxicology, and public health.
Tony Wilson鈥檚 presentation explored storytelling, food memory, and creative expression through Papa Tony鈥檚 Hot Sauce.