Interview with Danielle Levin
How Food Education Can Empower the Less Privileged
Interview with Danielle Levin, a public health professional dedicated to tackling issues related to poverty through food education and food solutions.
"Getting the family involved and family buy-in is essential to see youth change their eating patterns.”
When we think of culinary education, we often imagine the advantages of eating high-quality food. Still, one of the most intriguing aspects of culinary education is that it can profoundly impact the quality of life of an individual. In this interview, we talk about the depth and effect of food on poverty as we sit down with Danielle, the founder of SNACC. She created an after-school youth development program that provides weekly, at-home cooking lessons led by professional chefs. SNACC’s food-based curriculum is a mechanism to break cycles of poverty and create lasting change for youth and families. She has also works as a consultant advising governments and agencies on the implementation of wide-scale public health solutions.
Where did all this begin?
Addressing economic disadvantage and breaking cycles of poverty has always been of particular interest to me. Especially focusing on youth because investing in youth is an investment in the whole of society as they are our future. Children should realize their full potential, but that can be challenging when some grow up lacking the necessary resources for healthy development. I spent a lot of time thinking about why school dropout rates are so high and why some students in lower-resource areas have significantly more challenging academic and social journeys than their peers in more affluent communities. After much research, I came to recognize that the barriers to students thriving in their developmental years were often unmet emotional and nutritional needs. I was in graduate school at the time pursuing my Master’s in Public Health and spent many days and nights exploring program strategy and design to determine how this could all come together. Through research, conversations, and community analysis, we decided that food can be a powerful tool to promote the emotional, social, physical, and behavioral health that youth need to succeed. At that point, we decided to bring food and positive youth development together through a strategic, fun, and engaging program- which became known as SNACC (Sustainable Nutrition And Community Connection). With that being said, it is essential to note that SNACC was not founded as a culinary program but rather a program that uses food and culinary arts as a mechanism to promote positive youth development for all-around improved health and development outcomes.
If you could add one new subject to the curriculum of a culinary school, what would it be?
I believe that a Public Health, Food-Access component should be part of culinary curriculums. As a global community, we are experiencing pressing issues directly related to food, such as access to food, obesity, food-literary, food-related illness, and sustainability of food systems. There are many ways food experts can play a role in the solutions. Therefore, it is critical to equip future culinary leaders with the knowledge and skills to understand and contribute to addressing some of these issues. Food is essential for survival and is directly related to the health and wellbeing of society. A culinary curriculum seems like a natural fit to focus on global and local food-related challenges and there are various ways culinary professionals can use their skills, influence, and passion to help improve our food system and health outcomes.
What has been your greatest challenge in teaching youth how to make healthy choices and cook healthy meals?
As many of us know, lasting change comes from within the home. For us, our biggest challenge was initially figuring out how to get into the homes of our students and influence their microsystem. The microsystem includes individuals and environments in which a child spends the most time, such as their family, friends, home, and neighborhood. Getting the family involved and family buy-in is essential to see youth change their eating patterns. As a society, we often speak about “kids making healthy choices” but many times, food-related choices and decisions are not left up to the youth themselves. It is often based on what the family can afford, what they can access, what they have time to prepare, or what is familiar. Therefore, removing some of the barriers for families to make healthy decisions by engaging and empowering youth by providing them with the tools, ingredients, and education while involving the whole family is the key to change.
Where and when did you have a life-changing culinary experience?
A few years ago, I ate at Central Restaurant in Lima, Peru. The menu represents the country’s bio-diversity, with each course utilizing ingredients from a different terrain/elevation level. The menu takes you on a journey from the Andes to the Amazon. Each item on the menu tells a different story and highlights many unfamiliar ingredients from the land and sea while minimizing waste. This experience showed me that we, as a society, may need to re-think how we use our resources and perhaps be more open-minded to unfamiliar, nutrient-rich ingredients as a mechanism to increase access to food. It also connected me emotionally to the land I had just been hiking and exploring for the prior week. Each course brought memories, feelings, and experiences because each bite represented part of a journey. The creativity also changed my perspective as I feel that thinking outside-of-the-box and pushing limits is what differentiates the good from the great – and this is relevant to any industry!
What's a fun culinary fact about you?
While I have long been excited by food and culture, my personal culinary journey began primarily alongside the development of SNACC. I didn’t cook often before SNACC was founded, and I owe my passion for cooking to our amazing students and chefs who inspire me at every session!