For many Chicagoans, access to healthy food is sparse.
After Whole Foods shuttered its doors in Englewood last fall, it seemed like the community was back at square one. But a handful of young people on the South Side have been taking matters into their own hands through the Food, Farm, Familias program, housed at the Breathing Room, 1434 W. 51st St.
Paid interns learn a variety of skills on a rotating basis, varying from carpentry to growing and harvesting crops. Under the direction of chef Roberto Pérez, founder of Urban Pilón, students 16 to 24 years old can try their hand at making food.
The educational program was born after a mutual-aid program was launched and co-led by Getting Grown Collective, the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization and a few other community groups in Englewood, Little Village and South Shore during the pandemic.
Over 300 meals were given out weekly to individuals and families in need as a part of the program. But as life in the city shifted to a post-pandemic new normal, Pérez said that his focus shifted to creating an educational program that young people could also profit from.
“What we saw was that there were a lot of people that felt really passionate about feeding people,” he said.
Perez said that two interns who had worked as urban farmers at the Breathing Room’s garden approached him about making meals.
Each year, the program launches in April and continues into November — coinciding with the gardening season in Chicago. Some meals are given for free to people in need, while others are sold to others in the community at $20 per meal.
Sofia Aranda, 24, has been working with Pérez in the kitchen since last April.
Aranda, who considers herself an environmentalist, first came across Grow Greater Englewood on social media. She already had an interest in cooking, as she’d previously interviewed students at Kennedy-King College’s Washburne Culinary & Hospitality Institute for her communications program.
So she applied, interviewed, and secured a spot in the program, eventually becoming a part of its core team as a communications specialist.
“It’s fun to work with the students and see the progress that they’re making,” Pérez said.
He is careful about choosing dishes that students will find interesting, are within their skill sets, and won’t break the bank, especially because some are limited due to being in school or from low-income families.
“What do the kids want to make, and will they remake it?” Pérez said he often asks himself.
He wants to give students the experience of being in an industrial kitchen, learning different techniques and trying things that they might have never thought of before. This helps them become independent, find meaningful work and become less reliant on fast food, he said.
Aranda said that the program wouldn’t be possible without donations and fundraisers. She added that while much of the produce is grown in the Breathing Room’s garden, a few urban farms in the area will regularly donate items, too.
Jamal “Prince” Gaines, a 19-year-old studying theater art at Harold Washington College, also began his rotation in the kitchen last April.
“I really wanted to learn how to cook,” Gaines said of how he became interested in the kitchen at the Breathing Room. “I also heard about the good things that this program was doing when they was just giving free meals.”
Aranda and Gaines, now both apprentices with Grow Greater Englewood, have made huge strides in the kitchen, according to Pérez. They come in twice a week.
Pérez said he doesn’t like to hover over the students and instead lets them learn from trial and error.
“I want them to do it themselves ... and make it their own,” he said. “They’ll then make adjustments and give their own opinions.”
While Gaines and Aranda have aspirations outside of the program, they are proud to be a part of something that gives back to the community.
“The food that we’re giving away is really healthy,” Aranda said. “We’re giving people healthy food for free, and just having a full-circle [moment] with the community.”
Try recipes from Chef Roberto and others featured in our special series Food Fusión.
