Mindful Eating for the Beloved Community: A Story from Region 2

Show Notes

00:00:03:13 - 00:00:28:22
Yamila El-Khayat
I’m librarian Yamila El-Khayat and this is NNLM Discovery a podcast from the Network of the National Library of Medicine. This podcast series explores how NNLM is improving the public’s health by communicating in new ways. Today’s episode is, “Mindful Eating for the Beloved Community,” a story from Region #2. Grant recipient and Regional Advisory Board member for Region 2, Alex Askew, will be joining us today. 

00:00:29:00 - 00:00:30:09
Yamila El-Khayat
Hi there, Chef Alex.

00:00:30:11 - 00:00:31:16
Chef Alex Askew
Hey, how you doing, Yamila?

00:00:31:22 - 00:00:43:09
Yamila El-Khayat
I'm doing well. So I've been told that this grant has been a labor of love for you, especially as a chef. Let's start with why you're so passionate about this story.

00:00:43:11 - 00:01:10:01
Chef Alex Askew
Well, I believe love is food and food is love. And I started very early when I was 14, actually cooking for a private family when I was in high school and at age 15, lied about my age so I could work in the big restaurants and see what was really happening in the food scene. So for many, many years of most of my life, food has always been my passion.

00:01:10:03 - 00:01:37:09
Chef Alex Askew
And in my journey throughout communities, I looked at our food system and came up and created a framework called “Mindful Eating for the Beloved Community” that was based on Martin Luther King Jr's global vision in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth. And he was absolutely very, very adamant about poverty, hunger and homelessness not being tolerated.

00:01:37:11 - 00:01:55:15
Martin Luther King Jr. 
I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.

00:01:55:17 - 00:02:06:15
Yamila El-Khayat
Wow, I love this. That's such an important goal that's still not realized 55 years after his death. How do you approach such a large undertaking?

00:02:06:17 - 00:02:12:00
Chef Alex Askew
Well, I'll ask you this. How do you eat an elephant?

00:02:12:02 - 00:02:13:15
Yamila El-Khayat
Umm, I'm really not sure, how?

00:02:13:21 - 00:02:40:23
Chef Alex Askew
Well, the answer there is one bite at a time. That's how we tackle these big issues. All our small bites add up to connect the dots. And to me, the biggest thing is awareness. You know, our food system, the most important system on this planet, in my opinion, is on fire. And most of the people are just watching it burn, not even realizing it's on fire.

00:02:40:23 - 00:02:49:20
Chef Alex Askew
So we need to activate those that can be our firemen and fire women for food justice in our communities.

00:02:49:22 - 00:02:57:18
Yamila El-Khayat
I think I'm one of those people not seeing the fire, Alex. Let's expose those flames today. What is your program all about?

00:02:57:20 - 00:03:38:06
Chef Alex Askew
Well, I started “Mindful Eating for the Beloved Community” by collecting essays from influential culinary chefs, farmers, agriculturalists and leaders in the food system who wrote short essays that were very contemplative about where we are in our food system connected to our communities. You know, the goal was to tell the stories of not only what is broken in our food system, but more importantly, how to address and correct those problems by rebuilding our food system that works for everyone, especially the most vulnerable.

00:03:38:08 - 00:03:42:12
Chef Alex Askew
And that is in line with Martin Luther King Jr's vision.

00:03:42:14 - 00:03:48:14
Yamila El-Khayat
I can see that. So how does NNLM fit into this and what's the connection?

00:03:48:16 - 00:04:29:03
Chef Alex Askew
Well, I think the correlation the connection is that food is medicine. You know, food is the largest legal drug that is available to everyone. I mean, if you're eight years old, you can go into a fast food restaurant and order eight hamburgers. Obviously, that would be problematic to your cardiovascular system if you kept that up. So being mindful about what we put into our bodies and mindful eating is this concept of integrating this awareness, integrating healthy eating habits and reacting and responding on an individual level, a family level, and a community level.

00:04:29:05 - 00:04:54:21
Chef Alex Askew
And keep in mind that a lot of illnesses that are in our community today are diet related. So with this concept of mindful eating, we're able to give people the tools to make better choices, to make healthier choices. So it is natural that this NNLM Grant was going to be a perfect resource and they would be a perfect partner for this project.

00:04:54:23 - 00:05:06:00
Chef Alex Askew
My goal with this grant was to expand health literacy and mindful eating throughout the Virgin Islands. So Yamila, what do you know about the Virgin Islands?

00:05:06:02 - 00:05:16:12
Yamila El-Khayat
I know they're in the Caribbean. We did do a short story about the islands last season, so I know they get hit by natural disasters quite a bit, but that's about all I know.

00:05:16:14 - 00:05:37:02
Chef Alex Askew
So I have a relationship through Puerto Rico. I have property there for almost 20 years. I married a Puerto Rican who reminds me that I'm not Puerto Rican, but I do have a son who's half Puerto Rican, which is my family connection to that island and Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands serve as the territories of the United States.

00:05:37:03 - 00:05:57:02
Chef Alex Askew
They're actually part of the United States. To give you an example, let's kick off this story. So I talked to the USVI Culinary Ambassador, Chef Ralph Motto, whose family has been living on Saint Croix for six generations. And he explained what their community’s food system is really like.

00:05:57:04 - 00:06:22:07
Chef Ralph Motto
So it's a beautiful place to live, but the cost of living is so extreme that the majority of the population lives in poverty and relies on federal dollars for sustenance. And that comes with its limitations. You know, there's only about so much you could buy with a WIC or a welfare card, which leaves out the ability to access foods from local farms or local farmers.

00:06:22:07 - 00:06:39:15
Chef Ralph Motto
That's sustainably grown, that's nourishing for the body. And you see it not just on Saint Croix, but throughout the Virgin Islands in general. The poverty line is so high that you just don't have a lot of communities that have access to healthy, green, fresh, organic vegetables.

00:06:39:17 - 00:07:08:05
Chef Alex Askew
So Saint Croix, the island we visited, is very different than Saint Thomas and Saint John. Because it's flat, the climate is warm, there's regular rain, the ground is fertile. It makes it a perfect area for farming, but hardly any food is locally sourced. And this leads to some very serious health concerns. The USVI has one of the highest morbidity rates for dietary issues like heart disease, obesity and diabetes.

00:07:08:07 - 00:07:24:04
Chef Alex Askew
Let's listen to Sarah Dahl-Smith, who partnered with us on this effort and runs a 4-H Healthy Habits program at the University of the Virgin Islands. Let's take a listen to Sarah as she explains the issues around food access on the islands.

00:07:24:06 - 00:07:54:18
Sarah Dahl-Smith
Let me start by saying that the Virgin Islands imports over 97% of what we eat. So let's start there. Are we making efforts? Do we have supermarkets that are readily accessible? Yes. Do we have fresh produce that's readily accessible? That's a little bit more iffy. Do we have an effort afoot with local producers and farmers coming online to try and impact and maybe make a dent in that and actually produce more of the food that we eat?

00:07:54:22 - 00:08:01:05
Sarah Dahl-Smith
Yes, but access is an issue. Access to fresh produce is an issue.

00:08:01:07 - 00:08:06:12
Yamila El-Khayat
Wait a minute, 97% of the food is imported? That's pretty crazy.

00:08:06:12 - 00:08:13:21
Chef Alex Askew
Well, think about 97% of your food being cut off by a natural disaster. That's even crazier.

00:08:13:23 - 00:08:18:07
Yamila El-Khayat
Wow. I don't think I even want to. That's not a good system.

00:08:18:08 - 00:08:45:08
Chef Alex Askew
You know, like Sarah mentioned, there are efforts in the community to fix the problem, and everyone realizes that it starts with the farm. And that's where I started my journey as well by visiting Sejah Farms. And this farm, I got to be honest with you, is such an experience was such an experience for me because it was all about food sovereignty.

00:08:45:10 - 00:09:18:17
Chef Alex Askew
Running a farmer's market, collecting produce from one farmer and connecting one farm with another around the island, selling to shops, getting it into the food system, local produce, and helping build the resurgence of agriculture by providing education, training and resources to all the farmers that were desperately in need. You know, I talked to Yvette Brown, one of the co-founders of Sejah Farms, and she described the challenges of the food system.

00:09:18:18 - 00:09:22:03
Chef Alex Askew
Well, I had time to spend there and tour the grounds.

00:09:22:04 - 00:09:41:18
Yvette Brown
Everything starts with food, whether you are human or animal. Everything starts with food. So the food system for me is the most important thing. One of our biggest issues in the Virgin Islands is we don't have a food system in place. And when I say our food system, we talk about food sovereignty and food security. Every time we are impacted by a major storm, we realize our weakness.

00:09:41:20 - 00:09:59:19
Yvette Brown
We have to wait until the planes can fly in and bring the necessary food we need to continue until we are back up on our feet. But how can you have a nation? You have all the knowledge of all these different capacity, but you can't feed yourself. If you can't feed yourself. You have no power, you have nothing.

00:09:59:21 - 00:10:03:11
Yvette Brown
At the end of the day, you have to answer to someone for you to get your food.

00:10:03:16 - 00:10:07:06
Chef Alex Askew
Mm hmm. Sounds like a form of slavery.

00:10:07:08 - 00:10:20:13
Yamila El-Khayat
Wow, Chef, that's really powerful. If that doesn't wake you up to see the fire, I'm not sure what will. I now understand the problem. So, what is your program, “Mindful for Eating for the Beloved Community” doing?

00:10:20:15 - 00:11:06:19
Chef Alex Askew
So let's build some context first. You know, first we needed to really get as much information as possible. And we talked to people like Yvette to understand the challenges that they face on the islands and to hear their overall vision of how they see agriculture and farming supporting community wellness. The second thing that we did was we had the great opportunity to do a food educational training at the University of the Virgin Islands, with young people who wanted to be community health ambassadors. So we partnered with Sarah’s 4-H Healthy Habits Program, and we ran multiple classes, both virtually and in person, about the essence of mindful eating with 32 student ambassadors.

00:11:06:23 - 00:11:15:19
Chef Alex Askew
What else are we clapping for? Oh, good health. What else are we clapping for at this table? Positivity.

00:11:16:00 - 00:11:43:06
Chef Alex Askew
And keep in mind, these ambassadors are being trained to be teachers of the community and will be responsible for educating their family members and even mentor younger children. Their goal is to reach out to 2700 kids aged 8 to 12 across the Virgin Island territories. And then lastly, we shared a mindful meal.

00:11:43:08 - 00:11:59:02
Chef Alex Askew
How you cut vegetables makes a huge difference in what your end product looks like. When it's caramelizing you want to make sure that you scrape the bottom that’s where all that flavor is. You pulse it. When you pulse it, it doesn't turn into mush, so.

00:11:59:04 - 00:12:24:11
Chef Alex Askew
We were able to get in the kitchen and cook, talk about food ingredients, and have this full activity centered around planning the menu, preparing the food, working with the students, meeting them where they are about food ingredients, educating them about ingredients they didn't know. And all of these elements of mindful eating and the beloved community came together in an integrated training session.

00:12:24:13 - 00:12:32:16
Chef Alex Askew
We had the opportunity to break bread and share this mindful meal together while discussing food in a very intentional way.

00:12:32:18 - 00:12:39:05
Yamila El-Khayat
What is the local cuisine of the Virgin Islands? I guess I don't really understand what you're pivoting from with this training and mindful meal.

00:12:39:06 - 00:12:53:06
Chef Alex Askew
That's a fantastic question, Yamila. Here's another interview clip with Culinary Ambassador Chef Ralph Motto, who explains the cuisine of their culture and why it's been historically unhealthy for the community.

00:12:53:08 - 00:13:16:21
Chef Ralph Motto
Our culture, which is so rich and our history and our traditions, which we love, all stemmed from these islands being part of the slave trade. And a lot of people don't think on it. But the food that we know and love came from these melting pots that the slaves would develop at the end of a day after they pick up the scraps from the masters.

00:13:16:23 - 00:13:58:18
Chef Ralph Motto
And so it's usually the worst parts of the animal or the plant or whatever the produce may be that's now being thrown in a pot and cooked for hours, on hours, on hours with a lot of seasonings and other things to try to make it taste good. And so here today, 100, 200, 300 years later, you've still got people creating those similar recipes and using the same cuts of meat that the recipes call for, which are often times more than none, like salted pigtail or salted pig's feet, things that are cured in so much sodium, no matter how long you boil it or wash it, it would never be healthy for you.

00:13:58:20 - 00:14:12:03
Chef Ralph Motto
And so understanding that you can pivot that into a more modern way of eating and then applying that to the knowledge we have today on how the body works and how genetics work is very important, especially like today.

00:14:12:05 - 00:14:25:16
Yamila El-Khayat
Okay, I definitely get why this program is so important to the health and well-being of the islands and why it's a perfect fit for NNLM. So when you were in the kitchen with the kids making your mindful meal, what did you guys make?

00:14:25:22 - 00:14:56:17
Chef Alex Askew
So when we developed the menu, we wanted to be aware of local ingredients. And this, you know, this wasn't the place or time to introduce new ingredients or foreign ingredients. So on that note, buying and really sourcing local ingredients were the basis for the menu creation. And second to that, you know, we wanted to really look at creating these recipes that would have a health influence.

00:14:56:19 - 00:15:25:13
Chef Alex Askew
You know, take, for example, beignets, which is a fried bread. You know, we took the fried dough pastry and we created a cookie out of the same ingredients. So instead of frying, we were baking. And the kids were familiar with those flavor profiles. They knew what beignet tasted like, but they also realized it was a health benefit from moving from one cooking method like frying to baking or roasting.

00:15:25:15 - 00:15:52:05
Chef Alex Askew
That changed the health profile of the food without compromising the flavor. We also made a butternut squash soup with ginger. All these native local ingredients were included with the butternut squash soup, with allspice and ginger and roasting the butternut squash so that it was just had a certain sense of sweetness. They didn't know it was a vegan soup, but yet it was.

00:15:52:07 - 00:16:19:07
Chef Alex Askew
But it was so good and savory. All the kids trying this squash soup, the butternut squash soup, some of them for the first time. And they really, really loved it. And then lastly, we made a roasted vegetable wrap, and this was taking local vegetables and produce, and we roasted them and seasoned them very, very well. And we rolled them up into a low carb wrap.

00:16:19:09 - 00:16:37:21
Chef Alex Askew
And there was no processed meat. There was no meat at all. And yet no one noticed. It tasted that good. So the process of starting with something familiar and then moving people to the unfamiliar is why the program worked so well.

00:16:37:23 - 00:17:00:09
Yamila El-Khayat
Chef, I'm super excited. I could see this working at my house. I love that at the end of the program, everyone sat together and broke bread, specially eating what was cooked in the kitchen. My husband is from Mexico and there's some cultural dishes we love that could easily be adapted into healthier options, like turning Taco Tuesday into salad Taco Tuesday.

00:17:00:11 - 00:17:02:05
Yamila El-Khayat
Although my kids would probably kill me.

00:17:02:11 - 00:17:30:02
Chef Alex Askew
Well, remember what I said before, Yamila? We have to eat an elephant one bite at a time. So maybe removing the cheese one taco Tuesday and then the sour cream the other week, later. It doesn't all have to happen at once and you can still get to your desired goal. But you're right. The main thing about the program is getting people back together at the dinner table.

00:17:30:04 - 00:17:53:07
Chef Alex Askew
This allows everyone in the family to connect, realizing that eating is an expression of dignity, self-respect, empowerment and self-actualization. This is something all humans deserve, and I think access to a healthy diet is the first step to healing and racial equity within all communities.

00:17:53:09 - 00:17:56:10
Yamila El-Khayat
Wow. Thanks for sharing your story.

00:17:56:12 - 00:18:22:04
Chef Alex Askew
You're welcome. I just want to add that none of this would have been accomplished without NNLM’s support. With the funding that we obtained from this grant. We've made this “Mindful Eating for the Beloved Community” into a strong and robust curriculum and syllabus that now is a model for other communities to follow, a model that can be replicated even on the Virgin Islands and the University for years to come.

00:18:22:06 - 00:18:27:18
Yamila El-Khayat
What's your advice to someone out there that may have a grant idea that would work well with the NNLM?

00:18:27:20 - 00:18:52:21
Chef Alex Askew
Well, the first recommendation I would have is contact your local office. You know, I knew of nothing about National Library of Medicine before this journey. And I have to tell you, they made everything so easy. It allowed me to really focus on the program and the actions needed instead of the paperwork around the funding that we were applying for.

00:18:52:23 - 00:19:05:07
Chef Alex Askew
You know, this bogs down so many of the small and medium nonprofits throughout the country, and it's all about getting the work done as soon as possible, knowing that the house is on fire.

00:19:05:09 - 00:19:28:02
Yamila El-Khayat
Great advice, Chef. We've also made a video of this story where you can see the mindful meal being sourced, prepared, and served in the USVI, and you'll also get to see Chef Alex in action. Look, in the show's description for a link to YouTube. NNLM offers many funding opportunities for projects that improve access to health information.

00:19:28:04 - 00:19:40:15
Yamila El-Khayat
Contact your local regional rep or search for grants that are available now at NNLM.gov/funding. This is NNLM Discovery. Thank you for listening.