FoodHe.ro: In Collaboration With New Vision Community Church
FoodHe.ro is a Latino-led social enterprise culinary school that builds culinary confidence for people of color through culinary training, entrepreneurship, and nutrition education. They prepare meals through a “Food Is Medicine” campaign, prioritizing culturally relevant meals with produce sourced from local growers. Since 2020, FoodHe.ro has served over 30,000 meals to communities of color in Chicago along with suburban towns like Cicero, Berwyn, and Blue Island. New Vision Community Church (Casa de Oración), located in Cicero, has been coordinating food donations since the pandemic with strong volunteer support. FoodHe.ro and New Vision were introduced through mutual friends at a local food pantry and decided to partner together for the program.
Mission
To strengthen the local food ecosystem through culinary education, workforce training, food entrepreneurship, and nutrition.
Vision
To support the new era of cooking led by people of color. FoodHe.ro believes in maintaining traditional cultural cuisine and also elevating it to today’s modern table.
Service
As the first Latino-led culinary school, FoodHe.ro is here to serve as a bilingual incubator for a variety of food businesses, ranging from street vendors to bakers, catering services to restaurants and consumer packaged goods. A shared kitchen, event space, and a mini grocery store are all available at their location in Little Village.
Microgrant Program Impact
Throughout the program, emergency meal kits were distributed in addition to monthly nutritional hands-on cooking classes for the Cicero community. A range of meals were provided, such as chicken tinga bagel sandwiches with chipotle aioli spinach and red peppers. The cooking classes were designed by a local nutritionist, offered in Spanish, and available in-person and virtually., covering topics such as “Powerful Breakfasts“ and “Delicious Dinners.“
Special Thanks to Photographer Blake Bonaparte (@ayeee_itsblake), Brittany Wright of Yo’ Little Business, Southland Development Authority, Real Foods Collective, UI Extension - Local Food Systems & Small Farms Team.
“The collaboration and partnership between FoodHe.ro and nvcc for this program has been such a great adventure. the community has been very happy, but the need continues to grow. we just know that we are doing the right thing at the right moment. thank you for allowing us to be part of the solution.
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This program is supported by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $25,124,437 to the Cook County Department of Public Health with 100 percent funded by CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official view of, nor an endorsement by, CDC/HHS, or the U.S. Government.
