Dining Features Article |
Sound Education
Activist and R&B singer Wil Bullock, a leading ambassador for sustainable food, is sowing the seeds for change.
By Jane Black
Fresh Beats
Bullocks lyrics are food for thought.
Go down the street in any hood // There aint a decent supermarket how is that any good // But you got your L spots and your corner bodegas // Conspiracy theyre playing us like portable Segas // But we gotta catch a cab ride the bus with heavy bags // Just to buy fresh fruits and vegetables plenty sad // Im a product of this unfortunate reality // And its not all right with me Im trying to rid this tragedy // Get the mayor and the governor and all the bigwigs // To put more money into school lunch and not the Big Dig.
Bullocks lyrics are food for thought.
Go down the street in any hood // There aint a decent supermarket how is that any good // But you got your L spots and your corner bodegas // Conspiracy theyre playing us like portable Segas // But we gotta catch a cab ride the bus with heavy bags // Just to buy fresh fruits and vegetables plenty sad // Im a product of this unfortunate reality // And its not all right with me Im trying to rid this tragedy // Get the mayor and the governor and all the bigwigs // To put more money into school lunch and not the Big Dig.
Like that of most of his friends, Wil Bullock’s main focus as a teenager was being cool. So when he was hired in the summer of 1995 to work at the Dorchester- and Lincoln-based nonprofit the Food Project, he was more concerned with the steady paycheck it offered than the program’s goal: to create social change by increasing young people’s access to healthy food. “I didn’t have an interest in agriculture,” he admits. “I was interested in a job that would let me buy my own clothes, have my own money.”
But each year, the Food Project lured him back, and in 2003, a trip to Brazil, where he saw “people sacrificing everything just to grow food,” finally brought the message home. Today, Bullock, 25, organizes an annual crop of 60 interns to plant, weed, and harvest each summer, and leads new sets of volunteers in the spring, winter, and fall.
He’s also emerged as the country’s leading young ambassador for sustainable food. In the past two years, Bullock has traveled to 35 states to speak to urban youth and others who, like him, grew up eating food that was faster than it was fresh. He’s also lectured at Harvard, Yale, and the University of Connecticut on the importance of educating young people about sustainable agriculture and making better food choices.
Somehow, though, it just wasn’t enough: “The average person can’t afford to go to a conference for a week to learn about this stuff,” says Bullock, who grew up in Dorchester. He wanted to find a new way to spread the word.
His method is music. Bullock’s grandfather, father, and uncles have been singing gospel together for more than half a century. Bullock, for his part, began singing in the church choir at seven. As a teenager, he trained at the New England Conservatory, and later formed his own R&B group, Phaze 3, which won a slew of local competitions and the right to perform three times at Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theater.
In 2004, Bullock applied for a grant from the Kellogg Foundation, which was trying to spotlight youth obesity issues. He received $40,000 and used it to buy recording equipment. This summer Bullock released a four-song CD, Time for Change, which he wrote, performed, and produced himself. “There’s a lot of information out there but it’s not being conveyed in a way that my younger brother, who loves to eat at McDonald’s, can understand. Music is my tool to get young people involved in changing the food system.”
Still, writing songs about food is no easy task. Fruits and vegetables, Bullock says with a laugh, aren’t exactly sexy. Instead, his lyrics tell real stories about access (“It’s not all right / For a mother of three to have to take three buses to get something to eat”) and activism (“It’s time for a change now / I’m making a plan / People holler stand up but ain’t taking a stand”). The music is a mix of R&B rhythms and smooth, soaring melodies. You can almost hear it playing on 97.7 WILD. “Every movement—civil rights, women’s rights—has had its own sound,” says Bullock. “I want to be that sound for sustainable food.”
>> The Food Project is looking for volunteers Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday mornings beginning 9/9. Call 781-259-8621 x30 or visit thefoodproject.org, where Bullock’s CD, Time for Change, can be purchased.
But each year, the Food Project lured him back, and in 2003, a trip to Brazil, where he saw “people sacrificing everything just to grow food,” finally brought the message home. Today, Bullock, 25, organizes an annual crop of 60 interns to plant, weed, and harvest each summer, and leads new sets of volunteers in the spring, winter, and fall.
He’s also emerged as the country’s leading young ambassador for sustainable food. In the past two years, Bullock has traveled to 35 states to speak to urban youth and others who, like him, grew up eating food that was faster than it was fresh. He’s also lectured at Harvard, Yale, and the University of Connecticut on the importance of educating young people about sustainable agriculture and making better food choices.
Somehow, though, it just wasn’t enough: “The average person can’t afford to go to a conference for a week to learn about this stuff,” says Bullock, who grew up in Dorchester. He wanted to find a new way to spread the word.
His method is music. Bullock’s grandfather, father, and uncles have been singing gospel together for more than half a century. Bullock, for his part, began singing in the church choir at seven. As a teenager, he trained at the New England Conservatory, and later formed his own R&B group, Phaze 3, which won a slew of local competitions and the right to perform three times at Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theater.
In 2004, Bullock applied for a grant from the Kellogg Foundation, which was trying to spotlight youth obesity issues. He received $40,000 and used it to buy recording equipment. This summer Bullock released a four-song CD, Time for Change, which he wrote, performed, and produced himself. “There’s a lot of information out there but it’s not being conveyed in a way that my younger brother, who loves to eat at McDonald’s, can understand. Music is my tool to get young people involved in changing the food system.”
Still, writing songs about food is no easy task. Fruits and vegetables, Bullock says with a laugh, aren’t exactly sexy. Instead, his lyrics tell real stories about access (“It’s not all right / For a mother of three to have to take three buses to get something to eat”) and activism (“It’s time for a change now / I’m making a plan / People holler stand up but ain’t taking a stand”). The music is a mix of R&B rhythms and smooth, soaring melodies. You can almost hear it playing on 97.7 WILD. “Every movement—civil rights, women’s rights—has had its own sound,” says Bullock. “I want to be that sound for sustainable food.”
>> The Food Project is looking for volunteers Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday mornings beginning 9/9. Call 781-259-8621 x30 or visit thefoodproject.org, where Bullock’s CD, Time for Change, can be purchased.
Originally published in Boston magazine, September 2006
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