Upon entering the room at Saint Martin de Porres high school, I was greeted with smiles from a chef, students and community members. The smiles were in large part due to the delicious aroma in the air and anticipation of two unique signature dishes for tonight’s Healthy Food Cooking Demo and meal, part of the school’s new Food Justice Initiative.
The Food Justice Initiative, which kicked off in August, is intended to enhance the health of the Catholic school’s students, as well as community members in the St. Clair Superior neighborhood where it’s located. Three in four residents of the neighborhood live at or below 200% of the federal poverty level and are eligible for food bank benefits.
Located at 6202 St. Clair Ave., Saint Martin de Porres offers a rigorous college prep education. As part of its mission of “preparing students of limited economic means to become men and women of faith, purpose, and service,” it connects students through its Corporate Work Study Program with an array of opportunities at local businesses, nonprofits, and public agencies.
Helping to fill gaps in food access in the St. Clair Superior community
The new Food Justice Initiative is supported by a grant received from Food Access Raises Everyone (FARE) and the Rite Aid Foundation. Participants in FARE programs can connect to other resources as well as participate in health, wellness and nutrition programming.
The grant was written by Aja Barrett, the program’s service and community engagement specialist at Saint Martin de Porres. Barrett said, “When I started learning about the food justice challenges in the St. Clair Superior neighborhood, it made me want to be more comprehensive with our offering to the community.” The grant funds a four-pillar approach for the Food Justice Initiative: Healthy Food Cooking Demos, Food Justice Seminars, Wellness Workshops, and Corner Store Grab-n-Go Prep.
Barrett described the components of the initiative: “Food Justice Seminars where we can learn about food injustice and food access issues, and why they happen. … In the Healthy Food Cooking Demos we can learn how to make healthy, nutritious, delicious meals on a budget, things you can stretch to feed a family. We also did Wellness Workshops to get people practical tools that they can use, because most of the time when you’re fighting with hunger, access, and poverty issues, for instance, you might be dealing with access to medical care, transportation, housing, or education. It’s usually a plethora of things that you have challenges with. The Wellness Workshop was designed to give people practical tools for overall wellness and community.”
As explained by Barrett, the final component was a challenging space to navigate. It was designed to be a corner store grab and go, because from the school you can walk to five different corner stores without access to fresh foods. They wanted to partner with the stores to put healthy options in there for the people who live in the neighborhood. That initiative was a bit more difficult to navigate and did not materialize. Instead, they partnered with elderly, disabled, and low-income residential facilities. That partnership grew into Saint Martin de Porres students helping to prepare organic fruit and veggie cups. Then, they would go out, share the food, and talk to the tenants of that community.
Cooking up community ties
Tonight’s event was the finale of the Saint Martin de Porres Food Justice Initiative, which served around 150 people since it began in August. Not only are the students involved in the program, but they have also opened it to the community. Judy Monfort is an 81-year-old neighborhood resident who saw a flier about it at a local library and decided to get involved. She said, “This program gives a glimpse of all these students who are very engaged and on their own time. And they even hug the chef. To me, that lets me know that this program is a very good program because they are liking it. And so when you are reaching the young people, then you have made progress in life.”
Leading the event is chef Shontae Jackson of Steel Magnolia Private Event and Catering, based in Oberlin. The chef, who also runs a food truck, has quite a way of mesmerizing the students and community members by engaging them to learn unique ways to cook healthy food. Chef Shontae shared with the students and community members how she grows the vegetables and food she uses on her food truck, adding that she used an edible flower (Nasturtium) she grew on her organic farm in her first dish of chicken curry and rice. The ingredients were chosen for their health benefits. For example, the rice was made up of 75% cauliflower and 25% brown rice, and the flower is said to help remove toxins from the blood, liver and kidneys. Also used in the recipe was coconut milk, which is said to be good for your joints, and chickpeas as a source of protein. The second dish shared for the event was mac and cheese made with oat milk and carrots.
The room was buzzing with good thoughts and feelings after eating these dishes. As I discussed the meal with my table partner, Elijah Williams, a student at Saint Martin de Porres, he agreed. Williams said, “Oh, I’ve been here since day one. I love food. I love learning about food and how to cook and prepare food. I love coming together with different cultures and coming together with different people so we can build a connection. And food is definitely the way to bring a connection. Yeah, I may not like some people in the room. But at the same time, when you bring food… to this place, you kind of become friends with them.”
Food is what is bringing this community and student body together. Students are then going home and asking their parents to cook in different ways and expanding their food knowledge. As we were wrapping up the event, a teacher was heard saying to the chef, “That chicken curry, immediately after eating I felt a lot of energy, revitalized. My mental clarity was improved. And, I feel good, feel like myself, you know? Good. The fog lifted.”
The Initiative will return in fall 2024 with some yet-to-be-determined adjustments based on learnings from its inaugural season, according to Barrett. She also hopes to build out additional community resources like hot meals, grocery and gas gift cards, and household needs baskets.
For more information on the Food Justice Initiative, contact Aja Barrett at 216-881-1689 ext. 373, or by email at abarrett@stmdphs.org.
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