Tiffany Haddish On Branching Out And Nourishing Community (Part 2 Of 3)

By Andrea Bazoin

You may recognize their names, but what they’re up to may surprise you. Meet three extraordinary superstars who are breaking new ground in health and wellness. In Part 1, we featured Halle Berry. In Part 2, we look at Tiffany Haddish.

Cross-cultural comic and actor Tiffany Haddish has been making us bust a gut since her 2017 breakout role in "Girls Trip," alongside costars Queen Latifah, Regina Hall and Jada Pinkett Smith. Now, she’s on a mission to heal the guts, bodies and minds of the BIPOC community of the historically underserved Crenshaw neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.A. through Diaspora Groceries.

PRIMARY GOALS

The primary goals of the future grocer will be to provide affordable and healthy food alongside financial and wellness education. Haddish is seeking to raise $25 million to launch the project.

Diaspora Groceries is a passion project inspired by Haddish’s personal struggles with food insecurity, health challenges and poverty.

“What we’re doing wrong [is that] we’re constantly focused on the outcome,” Haddish explains during the Welltainment Panel at the Inkwell Beach stage at the 2023 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. “Through storytelling, I’ve healed

Growing up, I was babysat by the TV. For me, TV and movies were my teachers. What I learned is that through communication and visuals, you can influence someone and change the way they think about things [including] the way they eat.”

Haddish says she didn’t know what a vegetarian was until she saw someone talking about it on a show.

“Then I learned about my blood type by watching a show on PBS,” Haddish says, adding she realized “that when you’re learning about something in a positive way, through storytelling,” you can do better.

COMBINING PASSIONS

Haddish is ready to combine her passion for Welltainment with her dedication to addressing food insecurity and health challenges in her home community.

“I’m going to make sure people have an experience [when they shop at Diaspora Groceries]. When you’re there, you’re going to be learning the whole time,” she says. “There’ll be little bar codes you can scan and learn [about every item]. You’ll learn how it affects your body when you eat [each type of food]. I really think it’s super important that people know what they’re putting inside themselves. Food is drugs; that’s why we have the Food and Drug Administration. Food can heal you. I know it’s healed me.”

In Part 3, we’ll look at Patricia Corsi.