Audio Transcript: I think for me healing is really looking at systemic injustice and thinking about how within this framework of capitalism we can use certain foods as a way to not just heal our bodies and ourselves, but heal a system.

My name is Sana Javeri Kadri and I’m the founder of Diaspora Co., which is a direct trade spice business.  

I brought a bag of tamarind candy and the significance to me was that 14 months ago when Trump was being elected, those were the candies that I stayed up all night eating and spent the next three months trying to grow in my backyard as a symbol of some immigrant resistance rising out of an otherwise very dark time. The seeds didn't grow, I ended up throwing them in the compost, but I did buy a flight back to India the same day that I threw them away and it marked a new chapter of my life and a new relationship with America.

With Diaspora Co., it's about bringing equity and empowerment back into a very broken spice system. And creating empowerment on the levels of the farmers, on the level of the folks packaging it, in terms of me, the Indian immigrant, then selling it, making sure that I’m fairly compensated, so every aspect of that system deserves its own voice, and I  think healing is about giving it that voice and giving it power.