ABSTRACT
Food security is an important social work issue historically, and social work educators are
responsible for teaching a curriculum that ensures social workers advance human rights,
social justice, and economic justice. Contemporary food justice work focuses on the
intersecting issues of policy, health, social justice, economic development, and the natural
environment. The long-term global public health and environmental threats posed by the
mainstream food system in combination with increasing poverty and food insecurity have
led to questions about the ability of communities to sustain a nutritionally adequate and
equitably distributed food supply. This paper provides examples of social work courses,
units, and assignments that focus on educating students about food and environmental
justice issues. Much of this work is based on service learning, which is an effective
pedagogical tool for fostering connections between classroom concepts and practice. Courses
that help students understand the contextual environments in their local communities
provide optimal learning environments to address social, economic, and environmental
injustices in the food system. Food justice, in particular, is one lens by which students can
learn about environmental justice issues for application to their future practice.
