Shirley Sherrod to be honored by James Beard Foundation

ALBANY — Albany’s Shirley Sherrod, the executive director of the Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education, which acts within the community to use education and resources to provide stability for Georgia farmers, will be one of the recipients of this year’s James Beard Foundation Leadership Awards.

The Beard Foundation is a culinary nonprofit organization that uses creative and progressive means to improve the quality and welfare of food. The foundation will hand out its awards on May 5 in Chicago.

The JBF Leadership Awards honor select members of the community who have stood out for their efforts in creating a healthier and more sustainable world through food and agriculture. This year’s recipients are individuals who have improved their communities through work or through innovative efforts that have had a large impact on the economic and environmental factors of the culinary arts. Honorees are chosen by past leadership award recipients.

Master sommelier and restaurateur Alpana Singh will serve as the event’s master of ceremonies, and Hyatt Executive Chef Martin Pfefferkorn will curate the menu. On May 6, the honorees will participate in a public panel on leadership and food-system change that will be co-hosted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Honorees will have a moment on stage during the May 7 Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Several celebrity chefs hold James Beard Awards, including Food Network favorites Bobby Flay and Emeril Lagasse.

Sherrod will be formally recognized for defending farmers and farmer equity as well as building farmer co-ops in the South. The SWGP works with farmers in 14 southwest Georgia counties. The project aims to strengthen the community’s food system through education and market access.

The Southwest Georgia Project also works toward strengthening the community itself through inclusion and human rights. It was founded in the 1960s by Shirley Sherrod and her husband, Charles Sherrod. The Sherrods espoused the belief that a nonviolent and racially integrative approach was imperative to the civil rights movement. Since then, the SWGP has spent decades supporting local farmers and rural communities with these principles in mind.

Sherrod was born in 1948 in Baker County, where she was one of the first people of color allowed to attend Baker County High School. Sherrod formerly served as Georgia State Director of Rural Development for the United States Department of Agriculture.