Op-ed: Emergency food initiatives prevented hunger during the pandemic. But to build a healthy future, we need to design a community-centered food system instead of simply responding to crises.
AGE 36
RESIDES Bedford-Stuyvesant
EDUCATION Bachelor s in English, Manhattanville College; master of fine arts in creative nonfiction, Goucher College
WORKING LUNCH When Gomes was working for the city Department of Health, she discovered BCCC. She loved the food prepared by the trainees so much that she would schedule her days around having meetings at its restaurant.
STEPPING ASIDE Gomes says the community should own the BCCC space and hopes to one day pass leadership of the organization back to Brownsville.
What do cooks need to know in the current landscape that is different from the past?
Most culinary education, you start with a French-infused training. That means you are learning someone else s culinary food ways. But it is important for participants to see themselves in what they are learning not only see your own tradition as beautiful and important, but also to see how you can build on it and create a career around it. It really imbues people with pride to see yourself
As lines at local food pantries began stretching around the block during the pandemic, community fridges emerged as a grassroots response – neighbors feeding neighbors. Community fridges let anyone give and take food freely.
To Mark Bucher, a restaurant owner in Washington, D.C., the appeal of a place to provide free meals was simple: an opportunity to care for others.
Why We Wrote This
Can meeting a neighbor’s need help stabilize an entire community? That’s what some in the community fridge movement are aiming for. Second in a series about hunger in America.
Because some sidewalk fridges have been shut down due to city health codes and permit requirements, Mr. Bucher approached the Department of Parks and Recreation at the outset, which quickly agreed to a partnership. His program, Feed the Fridge, now stocks 19 fridges in community centers around the city. Donations to the program go to local restaurants in exchange for meals for the fridges.