Food, Art, and Health: “Stir a Memory” Community Food Workshop a huge success!
April 13, 2011, East Boston, MA—Can you say pupusa? More than 170 people gathered at the Harborside Community Center Thursday April 7, 2011 can! They were there to celebrate food heritage at the Stir a Memory Community Food Series Workshop. The workshop, sponsored by the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center, was an evening filled with art, food, and chatter about memories, neighborhoods, and health.
Led by artist Krina Patel, workshop participants were encouraged to create food memory postcards that documented a particular connection to a food-related experience. Explaining her concept of food heritage, Patel said, “Food—thinking about it, making it, eating it, and sharing it with others—is a way of recreating memories. When we recreate memories, we ground ourselves. Instead of feeling alone in the world, we feel connected.” The postcards quickly transformed individual experiences into a spontaneous public art project, and sparked lots of chatting about yummy times gone by.
“The discussion was neat at Stir a Memory,” said Cait Van Damm, co-coordinator of the workshop series. “The conversations that arise around our cultural and physical connection to food, whether in the context of a kitchen, a neighborhood, or a faraway home, are what the Community Food Series is about.”
Over a feast of pupusas (delicious filled tortillas), participants were treated to a cooking demonstration of this Salvadoran specialty by Mildred Alvarado of the University of Massachusetts/Amherst Ethnic Crops Program. The demonstration was followed by a discussion led by Community Servings nutritionist Meghan Ostrander. Like Patel and Alvarado, Ostrander believes that better health can be found through embracing traditional cooking at home.
The Community Food Workshop Series provides an opportunity for discussion about food issues related directly to East Boston. The series offers opportunities for participants to get involved in urban gardening and public health initiatives. It is sponsored by Healthy on the Block/Saludable en tu Tienda, an East Boston Neighborhood Health Center and Boston Public Health Commission initiative to increase access to fresh produce and whole grains in corner stores.
The next Community Food Series Workshop will be held on Thursday, April 21, 2011. Titled What is Food Justice?, the workshop will feature the youth-led Chelsea Creek Action Group from NOAH. A gardener-led Container Planting workshop will be held on May 3, 2011.
For more information about the Healthy on the Block/Saludable en tu tienda project or about the Community Food Workshop Series, contact Cait Van Damm at 617-568-4028, or vandammc@ebnhc.org.
The East Boston Neighborhood Health Center (EBNHC) has been a vital part of its community for over 40 years, providing easily accessible, high-quality health care to all who live and work in East Boston and the surrounding communities of Chelsea, Revere, Everett, and Winthrop. EBNHC handles 300,000 patient visits per year—more than any other ambulatory care center in New England.
