Oh For Food's Sake

Breaking Barriers in the Food Industry: Ayisha Koyenikan’s Inspiring Journey and commitment to uplift the next generation

Episode Summary

If racism doesn’t affect your everyday life, it’s easy to not think about it or to tell yourself that it doesn’t matter. Maybe you also tell yourself that if you saw racism in your workplace, you’d recognise it and call it out immediately. But is that really the case? On this episode of the Oh For Food’s Sake podcast, we talk to Ayisha Koyenikan, a passionate and successful woman who’s achieved a brilliant career in the food industry, about the obstacles she’s faced being black in the workplace.

Episode Notes

If racism doesn’t affect your everyday life, it’s easy to not think about it or to tell yourself that it doesn’t matter. Maybe you also tell yourself that if you saw racism in your workplace, you’d recognise it and call it out immediately. But is that really the case? On this episode of the Oh For Food’s Sake podcast, we talk to Ayisha Koyenikan, a passionate and successful woman who’s achieved a brilliant career in the food industry, about the obstacles she’s faced being black in the workplace.

Ayisha tells us about her lifelong passion for food and how it led her to study food science and then switch tracks to a career in NPD and then food insights. She shares how her mum prepared her from a young age for the challenges of breaking into the corporate world as a black person and we hear about some of the incidents of overt and subtle racism that she suffered. You’ll learn the difference between equality and equity and how to challenge the ‘whataboutism’ question that’s often raised when affirmative action schemes are on the table. Listen out for ideas on how you can help to improve diversity in your company and help people from marginalised communities to enjoy a career in the food industry.

If Ayisha’s story inspired you to think about transitioning into a career in NPD, you can find out more by joining our upcoming NPD Fundamentals course! Whatever your professional background is, we’d love to see you there and share tools and knowledge that’ll benefit your career in food.

Timestamps

[1:58] Welcome to the podcast, Ayisha!

[3:35] Ayisha’s food obsession and her food career from food science to NPD

[8:14] How diverse is the food industry?

[9:54] Ayisha discusses how a lack of representation made her feel about her career

[12:52] “So I said something”: How Ayisha stood up to racism in the workplace

[16:38] Why we have to discuss racism in the workplace

[17:56] “I just don’t have the energy for that”: What Ayisha does and doesn’t do to fight racism

[22:58] Two paid internship programmes for young black people

[24:43] Equality vs equity: Why they’re not the same

[26:35] Ayisha explains why travelling is different for black people

[29:56] Following Ayisha’s career journey into NDP and insight