In 2001, Terry founded b-healthy! (Build Healthy Eating And Lifestyles To Help Youth), a five-year initiative created to raise awareness about food justice issues and empower youth to be active in creating a more just and sustainable food system.[6][7] The program taught children in underserved neighborhoods how to cook in an afterschool program, sending the kids back home with their prepared foods to provide their family a meal.[8] In 2002 he received a Community Fellowship from the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation) to support b-healthy's work, in which he led chef-educators Ludie Minaya, Elizabeth Johnson, and Latham Thomas in reaching out to thousands of youth in the United States.[9][10]
In the spring of 2003, Terry met author Anna Lappé. That fall they began writing a Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen (ISBN1585424595), which was soon bought by Tarcher/Penguin and published in 2006.[11]Grub received a 2007 Nautilus Book Award for Social Change.[12]
Among his national radio and television appearances, Terry has offered his commentary on the Sundance Channel's original series Big Ideas for a Small Planet. He has been a guest chef on three episodes of the BET series My Two Cents. Terry was also a host on the PBS series The Endless Feast.[4]
Terry is a consultant for the Bioneers Conference. He has helped raise funds for the People's Grocery in West Oakland,[13] and he consults for other not-for-profit organizations as well as corporations. He appeared on the "Nourish: Food + Community" PBS special that aired in 2008, and he has also served on the advisory board for the project's educational component.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2020 said of Terry that he had "dedicated much of his life to educating others about sustainable agriculture and healthy eating through the lens of the African Diaspora."[18]Ten Speed Press announced in 2021 that Terry would start an imprint called 4 Color Books focused on writers of color.[19]
Terry's writing and recipes have been featured in Gourmet, Food & Wine, The New York Times Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, Vibe, Domino, Mothering, Plenty, Delicious Living, and other print magazines. He has contributed to ABC.com and TheRoot.com among others. His column on The Root, "Eco-Soul Kitchen", offers thoughts, recipes, tools, and tips for sustainable eating and living. His essay, "Reclaiming True Grits", was widely circulated on the web and sparked heated debate about "soul food".[20] Distinguishing traditional soul food the "instant soul food" that began emerging in the late 1960s, Terry wrote: "Sadly, over the past four decades most of us have forgotten that what many African Americans in the South ate for dinner just two generations ago was diverse, creative, and comprised of a lot of fresh, local, and homegrown nutrient-dense food."[20]
In 2015, Terry gave a talk at the annual TEDMED conference on "Stirring up political change from the kitchen".[21]
In 2023, Tasting Table named Terry as one of the “21 Plant-Based Chefs You Need To Know.”[29] and VegNews listed him as one of the "37 Creative Chefs Crafting the Future of Vegan Food."[30] In 2024, VegNews also listed Terry as one of the "17 Black Vegan Chefs Redefining Plant-Based Food and Community."
[31]
VegNews listed Afro-Vegan as one of the "Top 100 Vegan Cookbooks of All Time" in 2024.[32]
Black Food: Stories, Art & Recipes from Across the African Diaspora (2021). ed. Bryant Terry with Oriana Koren. Ten Speed Press. ISBN 9781984859723 [33]
^Bryant Terry, ed. (2021). Black food: stories, art & recipes from across the African diaspora. Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed. ISBN978-1-9848-5972-3. OCLC1235904680.
