WFAEats

“Coffee folks: Who is making the switch from Starbucks to another coffee store owned by people of color or other minorities?” If you want to know what people think about a hot-button issue, post a question on social media. So on Wednesday afternoon, I did, and within seconds people began responding. 

As a social worker, Alisha Pruett was working to find housing for homeless veterans when she learned of another problem: lack of access to food. “I saw the barriers they faced in getting to resources and fresh food, due to lack of transportation and income,” she said. “I realized I had to figure out a way to get fresh produce to those in need.”

Pam was one of the best people to hang out with – so of course, the fates decided to send her away from Charlotte. A job transfer took her family to Virginia, just out of easy reach. No more spontaneous breakfasts at the pancake house. No more meet-ups for pub fare at Sir Edmond Halley’s.

Sometimes, a food aficionado just doesn’t want to bother cracking an actual book to learn something or be entertained. When the weight of that wooden spoon is too much to manage, digital cookbooks can be a satisfying source of recipes and fascinating glimpses into other eras and cultures.

This did not begin as a food story but it turned into one.

Back in 2014, Cathay Dawkins was troubled by shootings and other violence taking place in Charlotte. As a working artist and owner of a landscaping business, he remembers feeling he “had to address it from a black male’s perspective.”

He asked himself, “As a black entrepreneur, what can I do?” So he founded the Black Business Owners of Charlotte and began recruiting members to share resources, support each other, and lift up their communities. Thousands of people joined and soon an executive team was in place.

With the President’s Day holiday upon us, a food writer’s thoughts naturally turn to… well, cookbooks. We don’t typically prepare any special dishes to honor presidents, but let’s celebrate a few of the books that give us glimpses into the kitchens that have fed our leaders, their families, and guests.

Butter, chocolate, and wine are good for you, right? No, wait; they’re bad. We should all switch to coconut oil, carob, and kombucha, yes? The answer is…Maybe.

Move over, chicken soup. Step aside, cough drops. There’s a new flu fighter in town. And it’s going to send those aches and pains packing, right into the deep freeze – literally.

For more than a decade, agricultural attorney Jillian Hishaw has been working in the southeast to alleviate hunger, help financially distressed farmers hold on to their land, and find markets for locally farmed goods. 

Now Hishaw has been named a “Food Changemaker” by the Clif Bar Family Foundation.

People laughed out loud when I told them my New Year’s resolution: “I resolve to eat more pickles.” That was one year ago, at the start of 2017.

Well, no one is laughing now – because pickles are hot. (They’re also cold, quick, sweet, sour, half-sour, kosher, deep fried, and more.)