Deanna Turner trained at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in San Francisco, and worked at a chef at the upscale Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs before deciding that there were people who needed her culinary artistry more. The 57-year-old Turner, known as Mama Dee to the many who love her, runs the kitchen at the Comitis Crisis Center in Aurora, Colo., serving homeless veterans, runaway teens, and others living in poverty, providing shelter for them in a barracks once used by Fitzsimmons Army Hospital.
Mama Dee marinates and seasons the food with the same care she took when she cooked for paying customers, and pays attention to the presentation of the food on the plate. She remembers the food preferences of each child she serves, making them feel special. “The minute you start to treat a kid like an institutional kid, they start to think of themselves as an institutional kid, and they start to act like an institutional kid,” James Gillespie, the development director of the crisis center told Joey Bunch of the Denver Post.
Mama Dee told Bunch, “Some of these people don’t get a meal for two or three days, so when they get here, I want to make sure it’s good. No matter what they’ve been through, when they get here they’re eating five-star. I can do that for them.” For her work, her town has honored her with the “Amazing Auroran” award.
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Tag: food insecurity
Feeding the Needy in Paradise: Hawaii Brings Farmers’ Markets Right to Their Door
Hawaii may be paradise for vacationers, but not all locals are living the resort life. As in the other 49 states, Hawaii has its share of residents suffering from food insecurity and relying on food stamps to survive. So, in Honolulu, the GreenWheel Food Hub is working with farmers’ markets, like the Kuhio Park Terrace market in Kalihi, to make healthy, local foods available to residents enrolled in SNAP. Like similar programs, GreenWheel allows people to use EBT cards to purchase “Green Bucks,” which can then be used at almost any vendor at the farmers’ market. It’s a great way to increase families’ access to locally grown produce, fueling bodies and communities alike, but GreenWheel doesn’t stop there. It’s also building “micro markets” to bring healthy options directly to people who can’t get to the farmers’ market themselves, like those living in low-income housing in more remote areas or people with mobility challenges residing in senior living facilities.
EPA Issues an Innovative Challenge
Who says that government agencies don’t get innovative? The Environmental Protection Agency has partnered with the Agriculture Department to issue a challenge to creative problem solvers and entrepreneurs: Find would-be waste in the food chain, and re-direct it to feed America’s hungry and undernourished people. Food makes up a large portion of the nation’s landfills, and decomposition is a major contributor to climate change. Rather than react with bureaucratic subcommittees and lots of red tape, the Food Waste Challenge invites industrial leaders and universities, and even sports and entertainment businesses, to find ways to solve waste and hunger problems at the same time.