Dr. Leeja Carter is not your typical academic. After years as a professor and researcher focused on the social determinants of physical activity—particularly for Black women—she began to feel a disconnect from the traditional academic space. While she cherished teaching and mentoring students, the institution itself felt unfulfilling. That realization sparked a journey of self-discovery—and a bold pivot toward direct community action.
“Educating others was something I valued. But I didn’t feel like the institution of education was pouring into me in return,” Dr. Carter tells BlackDoctor.org. “Around 2018 or 2019, I received a Fulbright and went to London. It was my first time feeling truly free, like I was in a creative space. I found people in London and the institutions there to be much more nurturing. I just felt… alive.”
After that experience, she knew she wanted to feel that way more often. “I didn’t know how to replicate it, but I knew it was time to start planning my exit from academia,” she adds. “During that process, I had a great therapist who helped me practice the power of no—learning to remove myself from spaces that weren’t pouring into me what I needed to move powerfully, and in my own joy.”
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Then the pandemic hit, and propelled her into action.
“I started a grassroots initiative, the Hunger Project, to help feed people, with my students, for those experiencing food insecurity during COVID. Through that work, I started to notice something: the people we were supporting were in the same areas I had previously researched—places with food deserts, no sidewalks, and no safe places to play. The overlap was undeniable.”
These were the same neighborhoods where kids couldn’t safely exercise or engage in wellness. Dr. Carter decided to go all in—to be disruptive and strategic, to help people live lives that were not just good, but well.
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“I began to realize: all of this is by design. It’s by design that there’s no park within walking distance. It’s by design that there’s no affordable grocery store nearby. It’s by design that Black and Brown small businesses often don’t survive more than three years, especially in our neighborhoods.”
The Birth of Ujamaa Cafe
With that clarity, Dr. Carter committed to disrupting it all and building neighborhoods rooted in health and care.
“That’s when I knew: it was time for me to bounce out of higher ed. It wasn’t loving me back. And I wanted to create an organization that would love me and love others—collectively.”
She channeled her vision into the Ujamaa Cafe, a program under her broader coalition focused on nutrition and health equity. “Ujamaa”—Swahili for extended family or cooperative economics—captures the philosophy behind her work: interconnectedness and collective well-being.
“We believe that food is a powerful tool to transform communities. It’s not just about feeding people—it’s about addressing economic security through food.”
Through Ujamaa Cafe, Dr. Carter is placing refrigerators in food apartheid communities—areas long harmed by disinvestment and systemic racism. These are neighborhoods where grocery stores, financial institutions, and safe public transit or sidewalks have disappeared.
“This is the reality of food apartheid. So, we place our refrigerators in these areas as a form of reinvestment. We partner with local restaurant owners and growers to incubate their businesses while creating healthful, accessible food items.”
The food goes into the refrigerators—and it’s free.
Leveraging Technology
“The cool thing is, these fridges are tech-enabled. We use RFID [Radio-Frequency Identification] tags on each item. So, when we receive items like empanadas, burritos, pressed sandwiches—foods that are delicious and health-forward—we can track what’s being taken,” Dr. Carter explains. “We’re not trying to make everyone go vegan, but we are encouraging small steps toward more nourishing options. For instance, we might stock a plant-based chorizo burrito, which someone may have never tried before.”
The RFID tags are picked up by sensors inside the fridge.
“While we don’t track individual people—we don’t know who took the item—we can see in real time that, say, a burrito was removed or that someone picked up a parfait. We can even tell if someone held each item for five seconds and then put one back. This kind of data allows us to make informed decisions about what people prefer. We restock based on actual eating patterns. That leads to a few really important outcomes.”
One key outcome: zero food waste. “We’re not just saying, ‘Hey, here’s some canned goods—eat it because you’re food insecure.’ Instead, we’re asking: ‘What do you actually want to eat?’ And we learn from that.”
Ujamaa Cafe is also committed to reinvesting in local businesses. These are neighborhood restaurants and food makers who get paid to stock the fridges.
“That’s direct economic reinvestment in our communities. The revenue generated from our funding goes straight to them. It’s bringing them into a broader community of health and care,” she says. “And finally, it’s helping people who are experiencing nutrition inequity or food insecurity get what they need—with zero surveillance, zero shame, and zero judgment.”
Engaging the Next Generation
Dr. Carter is equally committed to the next generation. Through the “STEM for Good” program, young people become interns with Ujamaa Cafe, learning about predictive modeling for restocking and gaining valuable skills in science, technology, engineering, and math.
“I’m really big on getting youth involved in everything. Yes, kids are the future, but it’s also about supporting their imagination now,” she says. “…It’s a space where kids—either already in our programs or interested in learning about STEM—can become interns within the Ujamaa Café initiative. They learn about the predictive modeling we use to make decisions around restocking the fridges.”
Student interns from local middle and high schools will start this summer and continue throughout the year.
“For us, it’s about building a community of care—and a community of imagination—where we’re actively engaging the next generation of food scientists and food data analysts. That, to me, is how you change the landscape.”
Dr. Carter emphasizes that people shouldn’t be afraid of technology. “There’s this hesitation—like, ‘I don’t know what tech is,’ or ‘That sounds complicated.’ But technology can be incredibly useful in closing the food access gap. It helps us be more strategic and mindful in how we deliver food security, care, and services that truly respond to people’s needs. Especially in areas that have been intentionally ignored, tech gives us the power to be disruptive in a meaningful way.”
She urges bold thinking when addressing food deserts or food apartheid. “We need to use tools—especially tech tools—to be radically disruptive and bold, because we’re up against systems that have been deeply discriminatory for generations.”
A Holistic Approach to Health Equity
Dr. Carter’s work isn’t just about food. She sees food security as directly tied to economic security and other social determinants of health. Her coalition listens to communities and adapts programs based on real needs.
A conversation with a school principal, where a Ujamaa Cafe fridge had been placed, led to the development of a youth entrepreneurship program focused on food and nutrition. Similarly, a fridge at the Abramson Cancer Center in Philadelphia sparked the “Power Up Produce” initiative, delivering fresh produce to low-income cancer patients in New Jersey. One fridge led to a conversation, and that conversation turned into a program.
Recognition and Future Vision
Dr. Carter’s innovative model has drawn national attention, including a recent feature in AfroTech. For her, the recognition validates her work as a Black woman disrupting traditional approaches to food security and nutrition equity. It also reinforces the need for creative, tech-forward solutions to systemic problems.
Looking ahead, Dr. Carter and her coalition have a bold five to 10-year plan to establish Ujamaa Cafes in 50 cities nationwide. With extensive research already identifying neighborhoods most impacted by food apartheid, their goal is for these refrigerators to become cornerstones of community-led change, ensuring that everyone has access to healthy food on their own terms.
If you’re inspired by Dr. Carter’s work, you can connect with her coalition on Instagram (@coalition_equity and @ujamaacafe) or TikTok (@coalitionequity). By becoming a monthly donor through the “Ujamaa Love Collective,” you directly support the establishment and sustainability of Ujamaa Cafes in the communities that need them most.
