The Bay Area is home to some of the best chefs and restaurants in the world. So, when someone local wins a prestigious James Beard Award, it is easy to assume the honor went to one of them.
This year, though, in the category of Food Issues and Advocacy, the winner was something different: an Oakland-based nonprofit.
Impact Justice is dedicated to improving the lives of people both inside and outside the justice system. Two years ago, NBC Bay Area profiled their Homecoming Project, which matches formerly incarcerated people with community members willing to open their homes and help ease their transition back into society.
For their latest effort, Impact Justice has turned its focus to a different subject: prison food.
“When you feed somebody moldy food, you’re telling them, ‘I don’t care about you,’” said Aishatu Yusuf, Vice President of Innovation Programs. “When you feed them food that is disgusting, that’s how they describe it, you’re demonstrating that they are not worthy of a good meal.”
Yusuf is referring to the state of food in prisons, an issue that she and Alex Busansky, Impact Justice’s President and Founder, admit has been overlooked … until about a decade ago.
“We’ve been to dozens, if not hundreds, of prisons and jails,” Busansky said. “And I realized that I had never sat down with the men and women inside and had a meal with them. The reason is that nobody wants me to, because the food is substandard. It’s inadequate. It’s poor quality.”
Years of research and investigation led to the 2025 book Eating Behind Bars, which Busansky and Yusuf co-authored with Leslie Soble. The book examines the condition of prison food systems and outlines a path to improvement.
“The punishment is going to prison,” Busansky said. “You’ve already been separated from your family, your community, your loved ones, from the life you could have had. The food is not supposed to be inedible. It’s not supposed to lack nutrition or leave you hungry, impacting your health in the short term and leading to long-term issues like heart disease or diabetes. That is not part of the sentence, nor should it be.”
Beyond documenting the problem, Impact Justice is working to create solutions.
Its “Harvest of the Month” program has introduced fresh fruits and vegetables into 31 California prisons. In South Carolina, a pilot program allows incarcerated women to grow their own food using vertical gardens. And at its Oakland headquarters, the organization is building an indoor demonstration facility capable of producing hundreds of heads of lettuce each week.
The work is now gaining national recognition. Earlier this month, Impact Justice received a James Beard Award in the Food Issues and Advocacy category.
Leaders say the honor brings much-needed attention to a largely overlooked issue.
“Once you shine a spotlight on what’s happening with food in prisons, you can’t turn away from it,” Busansky said. “I think the obligation is to try to do something.”