Nonprofit fights food insecurity through healthy food access and nutrition education

Amidst new data that shows a citywide increase in visits to food pantries, United Way of New York City is working to promote healthy food access and nutrition education through its Community Chef Program. 

United Way of New York City’s Community Chef Program is a workshop series that operates in five food pantries across the city and hosts cooking demonstrations and nutrition education classes. The program is a part of the Local Produce Link program, which purchases fresh farm produce from upstate New York. Through these cooking demonstrations, residents learn various ways to cook while also learning about the nutritional value of fresh farm produce. 

“We noticed before the community chef program started that a lot of pantry clients were not familiar with some veggies, so they were not taking them, or they were taking them and had no idea how to use them,” said Julianna Morse, United Way’s program manager of local food initiatives for nutrition programs. “So that's where we're like, let's then bring this education component, have them talk about the veggies, talk about the farms, talk about the farmers, and then have a recipe and show them different ways how to make it.”

The Local Produce Link program is funded by the state Department of Health’s Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program and has been managed by United Way since 2001. The Community Chef Program under the Local Produce Link program was founded in 2010 and provides demonstrations every season except Summer. 

The Community Chef Program hires and trains residents within the community to become chefs and teach other community members. United Way has four chefs throughout the five locations and follows a curriculum adapted from the state Department of Health’s Cook Fresh program, which has been evaluated by registered dietitians.

The program teaches residents different ways to cook different types of vegetables each season, from pumpkins to radishes, and informs them of the nutrition each vegetable provides.

Community Chef Kathy Martinez has been active at Saint John's Bread and Life food pantry since she was four years old. At first, she would come to the food pantry with her grandmother. Soon enough, Martinez saw the impact of food pantries on her community and became a volunteer, eventually growing to become a community chef, leading cooking demonstrations in Spanish and in English. 

“This provides an opportunity where they can experiment. It feels good. Here's the basic concept of everything that we're giving you, this is the base, and just elevate it from there.” Martinez told New York Nonprofit Media. 

The program is free to the community and open to everyone. 

Next year, the program will take residents on trips to farms upstate so they can see how farmers grow their vegetables and learn more about the benefits of cooking with fresh farm produce. 

“The best part is when the kids say, ‘Hey, I like it!’ and they keep coming back to me, and they're like, ‘Can I get more?” says Martinez.“Everybody looks forward to it every week.”