Fueling a Community through Food Future WNY: Meet Alex Wright

Buffalo faced one of its darkest days on May 14, 2022, when the only grocery store in a historically Black neighborhood was the target of a racist mass shooting. Long before that horrific day, Alex Wright saw clearly how institutional racism led to disinvestment and a lack of access to healthy, affordable food in his hometown and was doing something about it. Alex has been developing solutions and building community around his vision - and that vision stretches far beyond East Buffalo. 

"Food fuels a community in so many ways, it goes far beyond having access to healthy and affordable food. Food can propel economic development and create economic empowerment."
 
   - Alexander Wright, Founder 
  African Heritage Food Co-op

When Alex graduated from law school, he felt a calling to the nonprofit world to make a difference in his community rather than practice law. His "aha" moment came when helping run a nonprofit on Jefferson Avenue. There were three generations from one family - a grandma, mother and daughter - all coming in as clients of the food pantry and Alex realized the nonprofit wasn't doing its job if there were three generations in need. It was in that moment in 2016 that he knew his community needed an economic engine that would feed - and fuel - itself and so he started the African Heritage Food Co-op to provide access for residents in East Buffalo to nutritional and affordable food, while building ownership.

A few years later he took his idea one step further by creating Blegacy Farms when he bought a 22-acre parcel of land in Franklinville, NY, and started offering people of color the opportunity to grow fruits and vegetables on a plot of the farm and work towards ownership of that land. The risk was low knowing the Co-op would be an immediate customer and would link them to other potential customers. 

Alex's regional understanding of the simplicity - and complexity - of how food fuels our economy brought an important perspective to the Regional Advisory Council (RAC) for Food Future WNY. This 9-county planning effort was created to strengthen the region's food system to achieve resilience, equity, strong economic performance, and reduced food insecurity. Alex jumped right into the collaborative work of the RAC and joined both the Access, Equity and Sovereignty (AES) Work Group and the Farmers & Producers Work Group. The AES work group is diving deeper into the programs, policies, systems and practices that create barriers to inclusion and food access locally and regionally. 

"The Food Future work is so important to me because I want to make sure that as we're building, and as we're thinking about the future of food, we are doing it in an inclusive way. This group had real conversations about that," said Alex.​

If you get a chance, sit down and have a conversation with Alex over a cup of coffee to hear his detailed ideas about the future of our food system that start with the Co-op but extend much further into our region. 

​"I hope that we can provide an economic engine in the community that becomes self-sustaining and will outlast me and my children." 

For more information on the African Heritage Food Co-op:
​African Heritage Food Co-op
Facebook
Email

​This storytelling project was made possible through funding from the WNY Foundation