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Peter Paul Development Center fifth graders learn to make apple turnovers with dietitian Ronel Carpenter. (Photo by Ash Daniel)
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Dietitian Amanda Biando talks with fifth graders from the Peter Paul Development Center. (Photo by Ash Daniel)
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The Sarah Garland Jones Center opened in 2017. (Photo by Ash Daniel)
Collard greens are a Southern staple. For many who grew up in Richmond’s East End neighborhoods, they’re usually served swimming in pork.
Clara Elliot, who goes by “Miss Clara,” was surprised to see them take on a bright green color while served alongside eggs for breakfast. She prepared them at Parsley’s Kitchen, a hands-on learning classroom at the Bon Secours Sarah Garland Jones Center.
“I was asked to come with a friend, and once I got here, I wanted to stay,” Elliot says. “I’ve learned so many things and techniques I didn’t know before.”
That includes how to avoid salt and fat when she prepares her meals. She also incorporates healthy alternatives into her daily cooking like quinoa and reads the labels of prepared foods before she drops them into her shopping cart.
“My husband doesn’t know,” she says as she puts one finger up to her mouth and giggles. “I want us both to be healthier. I already feel healthier.”
To the Kitchen and Beyond
Parsley’s Kitchen was named after an old gas station that used to occupy the space, says Albert Walker, director of healthy communities for Bon Secours Richmond. He’s helping to recruit partners and integrate innovative community programming at the center.
“It’s not a traditional health care facility,” Walker says. “Hospitals don’t usually run community kitchens and have classrooms.”
There’s a reason to try something new. Richmond’s East End has long been hard-hit by the symptoms of poverty, crime, gentrification and more — all of which affect the overall health of a community. Walker and other Bon Secours administrators heard a “silent cry” for a wellness space after reviewing a community-needs assessment conducted in 2011.
“We know the social determinants of health in a community are much more than just health care,” Walker says. “Living conditions have more effect than actually going to see a doctor. It’s about where we live, work, play, eat and worship.”
The Sarah Garland Jones Center is the prescription the neighborhood needed, or so Walker and his team believe. They’ve approached community programming as preventive health care. The goals are twofold: Provide a physical space that brings community members together to support one another and equip them with tools to create healthier lifestyles.
“Gone are the days where we have institutions like Bon Secours who are doing things for the community,” Walker says. “We want the community to do it themselves.”
The center has opened its doors to residents of the East End, social-service agencies, nonprofits and more. They’re generating ideas for programming, getting them off the ground and using the center as a home base or a resource. As the programs stick around and the results begin to take shape, Walker says, this public health approach will “move upstream” to improve economic development, racial inequality and more.
A good place to start is in the kitchen.
Try This
“You expect kids to have reactions when they try new food, but it’s entirely different when you see an adult try something for the first time,” says Tabitha Monroe, community health, wellness and nutrition manager at Bon Secours Richmond. “Those are the great moments, when a mom says, ‘My child has to taste this, this is really, really good.’ ”
Monroe oversees Parsley’s Kitchen, its Class-a-Roll mobile learning-kitchen program and several dietitians who provide free nutrition counseling. They work with people like Elliot, empowering them with nutritional knowledge that can help prevent and manage chronic diseases. Elliot and other East End residents discover new ways to eat seasonally, budget, shop and prepare food.
“We want to provide knowledge and access to skills to an audience who wouldn’t ordinarily see dietitians until they are in an acute-care setting,” Monroe says.
Newly retired women like Elliott, stay-at-home moms and school-age children are connected to the center thanks to partnerships with neighborhood resource centers, health departments, Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School, the Peter Paul Development Center and more.
Not only are these families and children learning new ways to prepare food, they’re also discovering new career possibilities thanks to the center. Monroe and her team offer food safety training and expose children to careers as dietitians and chefs — something they might not have learned about otherwise.
Grab a Buddy
Parsley’s Kitchen is just one of the places at the new center where organizations and businesses can interact creatively to help the community. For example, nonprofits Tricycle and Shalom Farms provide affordable and seasonal food. Aspiring business owners can use the kitchen and have access to food as they incubate concepts like Salt & Vinegar, an Asian-fusion food truck. Monroe says there is a growing waiting list to reserve the space.
Young men and women also use food provided by Shalom and Tricycle to create menu items at the Front Porch Café. The bustling coffee shop and café serves breakfast and lunch items like strawberry-banana smoothies and Buffalo chicken salad. Many of the staff are alumni of Church Hill Activities and Tutoring (CHAT).
CHAT had been looking to expand its employment training program for years. Accessibility was key. Chris Whiting, CHAT’s work leadership institute director, and his team envisioned a retail space where the staff could walk to work.
“This spot fit the bill,” Whiting says. “We also wanted a place for community members to meet and collaborate [at coffee shops], much like how we get our work done.”
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden Community Engagement Director Duron Chavis uses the café and community room to bring together gardeners, community leaders, nonprofits, civic associations, for-profit businesses and government officials. They’re all part of Lewis Ginter’s new Urban Gardening Training program and Beautiful RVA.
“It’s accessible to as many people as possible,” he says. “We bring in guest instructors, Tricycle, [and] have open dialogues about new green space locations.”
Much like Walker, Chavis believes the physical environment of a community is a key factor in determining its overall health. Empowering people who live in the community is the most effective way to make it work. The Lewis Ginter programs Chavis oversees place knowledge and power in the hands of community members. They not only decide where new urban green spaces go, but they also learn how to plant gardens, how to maintain them, how to cook seasonally and more.
“Instead of bringing people out of the community to teach them how to live healthier,” Walker says, “we’re bringing the change right to them, hoping they’ll take ownership.”
