American taxpayers are funding a university program that creates recipes for meals based on an African nation that exists only in comic books and movies.
Yes, we’re talking about Wakanda, the mysterious high-tech home of the Marvel Comics superhero Black Panther, whose eponymous movie smashed records at the box office earlier this year.
What folks eat in Wakanda, which, again, doesn’t actually exist, somehow has become the taxpayer-funded concern of the University of Georgia.
And this all has to do with the farm bill, which failed to pass in May but is being debated again by Congress.
Tucked in the farm bill is a little-known program called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education, or SNAP-Ed, which receives hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
SNAP-Ed is part of the larger Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, popularly known as food stamps. Congress first created it through the Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Grant Program included in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which President Barack Obama signed into law.
SNAP-Ed block-grants money to states that often work with local colleges and universities to develop programs that will encourage low-income residents on government assistance to make healthier food choices.
This is where Wakanda and Georgia meet.
The federal government allocated $428 million in the fiscal 2019 budget to SNAP-Ed as a whole, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Of that, $8.8 million went to Georgia.
One of the programs in Georgia is Food Talk, which is “an initiative of University of Georgia Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education,” according to the Food Talk website.
Food Talk was developed by University of Georgia’s Department of Foods and Nutrition and its Cooperative Extension Service, and funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Enter the homeland ruled and protected by the Black Panther, the first major black superhero, whom every self-respecting Marvel aficionado knows is also Wakanda’s king, T’Challa. (Nation and hero made their comics debut in 1966, but their cinematic bow didn’t come until Marvel Studios’ “Captain America: Civil War” in 2016.)
In an undated article posted on the Food Talk website and titled “What would Wakandans eat?” the taxpayer-funded program touts food and recipes that might be popular in Wakanda.
The guide describes the cuisines of cultures in the real region where the writers of the Black Panther comics over the years have suggested Wakanda exists:
While Wakanda may not be a real place, it is supposed to be located in East Africa. The exact location has varied throughout Marvel Comics, but one area that was suggested was the north end of Lake Turkana, making Wakanda somewhere between South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia. These countries are very diverse in people, languages, and importantly—food!
The article then offers meal suggestions based on existing cuisines in the region.
“Meals from these areas tend to be affordable and full of fruits and vegetables,” it says. “Let’s explore some of the traditional foods from countries like Kenya, Ethiopia, and Uganda so you can eat like a Wakandan right at home.”
The Daily Signal reached out to the University of Georgia for comment, but it has not responded as of publication time.
In the real world, conservative lawmakers have been critical of SNAP as a whole, charging that even with proposed reforms in last month’s failed farm bill, the food stamps program hasn’t gone far enough in eliminating waste.
“The measure does make some improvements in SNAP, namely limiting categorical eligibility to those actually receiving benefits in other programs and extending the work requirement to able-bodied adults,” Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., said at an early May event at The Heritage Foundation.
“But,” McClintock added, “it does nothing to limit SNAP to basic food commodities and opts instead to pay bonuses for fruits and vegetables while continuing to fund purchases of junk foods.”
It’s not at all clear how injecting the Black Panther and Wakanda into the proceedings advances reform, either.
Ken McIntyre contributed to this report.
