JAMAICA'S LATEST EXPORT
– food security the Mission:FoodPossible way
JAMAICAN NON-PROFIT, Mission:FoodPossible (M:FP), is kicking off 2024 by attacking food insecurity in Miami. On January 5 and 6, the group staged an inaugural Food Security Summit in Overtown, South Florida, in partnership with Miami non-profit, Green Haven Project. The summit focused on teaching Overtown residents how to prepare meals using produce from the free community gardens managed by the Green Haven Project.
Mission:FoodPossible (M:FP) head, Peter Ivey, calls the collaboration a serendipitous and purposeful match. “I was visiting Miami for my vacation, and a friend recommended that I check out some of what is happening in Overtown. When I went there, the first thing that greeted me was this sizeable garden. What struck me was that the foods were primarily what M:FP calls MVPs – our Most Valuable Produce – important staples like dasheen, plantain, banana and callaloo. I had two questions: “Who does this garden belong to? And who does this garden feed?’”
The answers to these questions led to a connection with the Green Haven Project, a primarily youthfocused non-profit that starts community gardens, teaches residents how to grow food, and then gives away the produce to those in need.
According to Jorge Palacios, founder and president of The Green Haven Project, the connection between the two non-profits is a natural pairing of mission and vision. “We see it as a step in the right direction,” he notes. “We’ve always had the component of growing food locked down, but were always missing the aspect of cooking the food and showing the community how to make it delicious!”
That’s where M:FP comes in. Their primary mission has been to teach residents how to cook readily available produce in healthy and creative ways. Both non-profits also have a focus on helping underserved communities sustain their own nutrition and fight against food insecurity, while honouring and highlighting the cultural roots of these foods. “This is a fusion that brings different cultures together,” Palacios notes. “We see it bringing in new residents to be part of our regular growing experience.”
GLOBALLY APPLICABLE SOLUTION
The Summit included a Friday fireside chat with community leaders from Overtown and South Florida about what food security should look like And on Saturday, the M:FP team did live demonstrations of how to prepare foods from the Green Haven Project gardens.
For Ivey, the summit represents validation for the M:FP team and their mandate. “It proves that what we’re exporting is a comprehensive and globally applicable solution. Moreover, when there are food security issues, solutions tend to come from developed countries to small island developing states. We are proud to have reversed this trend and be embraced by the Miami community. What we are doing – educating people about how to sustain themselves and empowering them to do so – is more valuable than just giving people handouts.”
Ivey also believes there’s a more important conversation about the history of food insecurity globally, especially in marginalised and underserved communities, and among so-called minority ethnicities. He sees a connection between the larger global issue of food insecurity among people of African descent and the transatlantic slave trade, racism, and exploitation. He uses the history of Overtown to demonstrate this.
“Overtown is a historically black community that has forgotten how to sustain itself. Overtown was once known as Coloured Town, created as a place for black people to stay because they were not welcome in the areas like South Beach and Miami Beach.
Black entertainers weren’t even allowed to spend the night if they performed in those places.
“But Coloured Town became a thriving community. It used to be called the Harlem of the South. The city experienced an explosion of culture and the arts. And remember that food is an important part of the Black and Latino cultures. These towns were booming. They eventually were marginalised until the area regressed to where it is now. The work that The Green Haven Project and M:FP is doing is to simply reintroduce the community to strategies that their forefathers and ancestors employed to guarantee their survival.”
Ivey continues: “Most organisations would be happy to claim that they created something new, but the M:FP ideology is not new. It would be an offence to my ancestors to claim that this is new because this is what they have always been doing. Anywhere they settled, one of the first things they did was to plant food so they could sustain themselves and their families on crops integral to their diets and cultural identity. To position this as new is to avoid the tough conversations about racism and slavery, and to deny the wisdom of our forefathers.”
AMAZING EXPERIENCE
Even the names of the dishes from the Summit carried cultural significance: ‘Creamy Lyric Yuca Porridge’ was named for the famed and historic Lyric Theatre in Overtown; ‘Garvey Greens and Chicken Wrap’ was named for Marcus Garvey, whose black nationalist movement had a stronghold in Overtown; ‘Dorsey House Eggplant Fritters’ was named after the home of the first black millionaire in South Florida, which was painted in full white and still sits in Overtown; and ‘True Green Haven Roll’ was named in honour of the Green Haven Project. The roll is a delightful full-house treat that features almost all the produce from the Green Haven garden wrapped in collard greens leaves.
“One thing we can all agree on is that seeing the community have fun and fully submerged in the amazing experience that M:FP provided, with their knowledge and skills, was a highlight,” Palacios quipped. This sentiment came through in participant testimonials praising the “from farm to table” concept, the colourfulness and tastiness of the dishes, the M:FP team’s vibrant and energetic presentation styles and personalities, and the wealth of culinary knowledge and history shared.
One summit participant, a student chef, shared:
“Being that my family is from Jamaica, [I was happy to] learn about different native plants through Mission:FoodPossible and different items that I didn’t know that we could cook, to practise culinary sustainability. And then also being a culinary student, I feel like I’ve learned so much [about] different practices that I can use at home and share with my own family. I look forward to joining Mission:FoodPossible in October, hopefully, to give back to Jamaica and my family’s country.”
Another participant said... “I’ve volunteered at many farms, and lately I’ve been thinking about how it’s not really enough to grow food; we need to know how to use the food that we’re growing. The fact that they [the M:FP team] are coming in and showing us how to use common foods that we see everyday and make delicious simple meals that anybody could make is mind blowing. I had so much fun with them [and] I appreciate their mission, their passion, their personalities.”
The event was sponsored by The Reggae Chefs, PIII Culinary Kit, and Pro Kitchen Hub.