Cooking Collard Greens with Chef Lee

Legendary foodie Chef Lee, now of Boston’s City Fresh Foods, cooked collard greens at the Boston Local Food Festival Oct. 2.  He said that he buys his greens from farms in New Hampshire.  Chef Lee said that he no longer cooks his greens with pigs feet, making his dish a healthier, vegetarian soul food option.

It’s great that more folks of color are thinking about “green cooking” and getting into starting their own gardens because the other “food options” like fast food restaurants in our communities are unacceptable.  We also need to spend more time looking at the indirect marketing tactics of these restaurants in our communities.  Recently I wrote a piece for theGrio on KFC’s PR meltdown with its Double Down sandwich which only gives a small spotlight to the bigger problem of food marketing.

In the last year, I have also taken steps to make better lifestyle choices.  When I did my IJJ fellowship on food and environmental justice, I started to think more about why I should eat less meat.  I not only eat more vegetarian meals, but I have incorporated more exercising into my daily routine.  Everyday you can find me either running outdoors, doing the elliptical or practicing yoga.  All of these healthy lifestyle choices have helped me lose weight, feel great and enable me to have a better sense of myself and a better environment.

Continuing A Season of Peace: The Unity March for Mattapan (conclusion)

By Talia Whyte

Isaura Mendes has become a staple at many anti-violence walks around the city for a very unfortunate reason. The Dorchester activist lost two sons, Bobby and Alex, to street violence. In 2008, she said she forgave Bobby’s convicted killer and told him she prayed that nothing bad would happen to him.

“Let me show you about forgiveness,’’ Mendes said at the Walk for Peace last July. “The murder of Bobby Mendes ended in forgiveness; do you possess the strength to forgive?’’

View the video here

Continuing A Season of Peace: The Unity Walk for Mattapan

By Talia Whyte

Dozens of concerns residents from all over the city and surrounding suburbs gathered on Oct 2 at the corner of Blue Hill Avenue and Morton Street in Mattapan to participate in a unity walk, which was called together by the Rev. Jeffrey Brown of the Boston Ten Point Coalition in light of the murders of four individuals just a around the corner on Woolson Street a few days earlier. A man linked to the crime was arrested Oct. 1 at a Manchester, N.H., apartment complex on a fugitive-from-justice warrant and is scheduled to appear in Manchester District Court for a rendition hearing.

View the video here

Talking to Massachusetts Voters

by Talia Whyte

Supporters of Gov. Deval Patrick and Lt. Gov. Tim Murray gathered in the South End’s Titus Sparks Park on Sept. 25 for their kickoff campaign rally. There was an uplifting mood within the multicultural crowd comprising of approximately 200 attendees who not only came to hear what Gov Patrick had to say, but to also get a glimpse of legendary singer and Democratic party supporter James Taylor. Almost everyone I spoke to at the rally said that the economy was their number one issue. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in Massachusetts is slightly below the national average at 8.8 percent. During his rally speech, Patrick said that his administration has helped create 65,000 jobs this year alone.

View the video here