Terry graduated with honors in English from Xavier University of Louisiana. He then moved to New York City to attend graduate school in History at New York University. After getting his M.A., he enrolled in the chef’s training program at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts in New York City.

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. In 2002 he received a Community Fellowship from the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation) to support b-healthy’s work, in which he led b-healthy’s chef-educators Ludie Minaya, Elizabeth, Johnson, and Latham Thomas in reaching out to thousands of youth across the nation.

In the spring of 2003, Terry met author Anna Lappé. That fall they began writing a book which was soon bought by Tarcher/Penguin and published Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen in 2006. Grub received a 2007 Nautilus Award for Social Change.

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 is also a host on “The Endless Feast,” a 13-episode PBS series that explores the connection between the earth and the food on our plates.

Terry is a consultant for the Bioneers Conference, he is the Ambassador at Large of the People’s Grocery, and he consults for other not-for-profit organizations as well as corporations. He will appear on-screen as an expert for the “Nourish: Food + Community” PBS special that will air Fall 2008, and he has also served on the advisory board for the project’s educational component.

Terry is currently a Food and Society Policy Fellow, a national program of the WK Kellogg and Fair Food Foundations. He is working on his second book, which will be published by Da Capo/Perseus in 2009.

Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen (Tarcher/Penguin, 2006), co-written with Anna Lappé with a forward by Eric SchlosserVegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine, (Da Capo Press, 2009)

Terry also contributed to Recipes from America’s Small Farms (Villard, 2003), eds. Joanne Hayes and Lori Stein.

Terry’s writing and recipes have been published in Food and Wine, Domino, Mothering, Plenty, Delicious Living and other print magazines. He has contributed to ABC.com and TheRoot.com among others. His column on TheRoot.com, "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.”

In addition to hosting PBS series “The Endless Feast,” commentating on the Sundance Channel’s “Big Ideas for a Small Planet,” and on the PBS special "Nourish: Food + Community," other television networks on which Terry has appeared include CBS, FOX, and NBC. He has been interviewed and corresponded on dozens of nationally syndicated radio programs.