According to a recent article by Food Safety News, residents of urban food deserts, typically low-income neighborhoods, have to deal with limited healthy-food choices. A food desert is generally defined as a location where residents have to travel twice as far to get to the nearest supermarket as their peers in wealthier parts of town. A number of recent studies provide data to support the assertion that residents of food deserts face significant obstacles in the purchase and consumption of affordable, healthy food.
Awakened Kitchen in Wilmington wants to help change that by bringing education into the city. “We believe that our community wants to know about wholesome, fresh, farm-to-table foods, but many times they just don’t know how to go about getting the information.” said co-owner Reyna Guy. “We want to show them how, where and why good nutrition is so important—and that we can do it without compromising our traditional ethnic cuisines.”
Awakened Kitchen was born from a professional friendship a little more than a year ago when Reyna and business partner Melissa Benbow became determined to educate the masses. The two 20-something visionary vegans met while interning together with the Public Allies division of AmeriCorps, a federally operated program by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), created in 1993 by President Clinton.
With the name aptly chosen, they began developing a modest website and Facebook page while utilizing the established meetup.com website to create local gatherings of like-minded people who would get together to eat, discuss, educate, plan and then eat some more. “We felt that we could contribute good flavor by using cultural fusions and spices,” said Melissa. Reyna added, “Many people believe that vegan food is just a boring salad in a bowl. We want to show them that there is so much more than that.” They asterisked that while veganism is not the focus of their mission, it is conducive to their own personal healthy lifestyle.
The women have formed partnerships with Nemours, a local Y and the downtown library to host the meetups and conduct workshops. During one particular gathering the team had the privilege of assisting in the preparation of a meal for inner-city homeless women and children. “An experience we’ll not forget,” emphasized Reyna.
“We spin our recipes in a way that people can really enjoy. We did a potato salad that included white beans that was internationally fusion-minded with Mexican and Jamaican spices and methods. We also did tacos with black beans, coconut curry and mango salsa. People went wild,” marveled Reyna. Other ambrosial plates the duo have created consist of falafel drizzled with a roasted red pepper mango sauce, coconut curry-crusted sweet potato fries, smoked collard greens tossed in sesame oil and fresh ginger and black rice and mushroom wraps with lemon tahini dressing.
Their food supply typically comes from the local New Castle Farmers Market “because they carry amazing herbs and spices that aren’t even labeled in English,” kidded Melissa. “We’d also love to form a relationship with the Urban Farm and Garden of Wilmington in the near future. They’ve been doing community gardening in raised beds at 12th and Brandywine streets since 2009.” The women would love to see more of this.
One of Awakened Kitchens’ goals for the year is to eventually become nonprofit while maintaining an entrepreneurial spirit so they can extend their reach to actually teaching young people of the community how to train others to shop, prepare, cook and do some hands-on inner-city raised-bed garden planting, maintenance and harvesting.
Several worthy meetups are scheduled in the next few months, including:
Potlucks: The potlucks are welcome to anyone who wants to enjoy good food with great people. Everyone is encouraged to bring a healthy plant-based dish that can be shared by everyone regardless of their diet.
Pop-Up Cafe: The Awakened Kitchen Pop-Up gives health-conscious diners a chance to experience a fusion of food traditions and cultures that will “awaken” all the taste buds. The Pop-Up is designed to be innovative and fresh and the same foods are never served twice. Awakened Kitchen uses as much seasonal and local produce as possible, and there are always gluten-free and vegan options.
Workshops: The workshops are interactive and fun and give participants relevant information that is easy to digest. The topics range from ”restocking your pantry with healthy condiments” to ”shopping for affordable healthy foods without stepping into a supermarket chain.” The goal is always to educate people on how to eat healthy, local and affordable meals that are full of all the flavors they love.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Awakened Kitchen will be offering this training at Elsmere Community Garden this upcoming spring. Participants will learn how their kitchen is the most important place to incorporate the triple Rs. Excessive food consumption and waste overwhelmingly contribute to the planet’s environmental issues, and Awakened Kitchen serves to educate people on how they can be the solution.
The women continue to want to inspire the minority communities within the Wilmington area about healthy living, good nutrition and education. That sometimes requires generous public donations on their website. “As simple as it sounds, when I see a person try kale for the first time and they love it, we become more motivated to keep moving forward,” said Reyna.
Keep up the great work Awakened Kitchen—with your philosophy of food, culture and conscientious living, we envision good things ahead for you!
Awakened Kitchen can be found online at AwakenedKitchen.org.
- Photo of Reyna Guy and Melissa Benbow: Ed Williams
- Remaining photos: Melissa Benbow
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