Comedian Kristina Wong, the “Food Bank Influencer”

Comedian and performance artist Kristina Wong will be doing a “Fireside Chat” with Chef Jose Andres at ASU Gammage on November 8.

The event is titled “A Celebration for Resilience.” It is meant to stir minds and reach the hearts of those who seek change for a brighter future.

ASU’s Knowledge Exchange for Resilience is a network of community partners working to share data and knowledge to improve community resilience. One area is food supply and food insecurity in communities.

Wong was the keynote speaker at the ASU Graduate College Distinguished Lecture on November 3. Her speech, “Sex, Lies, and Food Banks: Reimagining the Future of Emergency Food,” covered food disparity, uncovering crucial resources and how students can jump-start personal activism. 

“There’s a certain image that people have of who’s supposed to use the food bank and what the deserving poor look like,” Wong said.

Wong has always been passionate about using her social media to promote the work of food banks and educate people about food disparity.

“We should know that there is actually enough food for absolutely everybody but it’s just distributed wrong,” Wong said.

Wong took the stigma and shame out of something that seemed unglamorous to promote.