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Speaker 1: My name is Eva Longoria and I am Ma Traon

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Speaker 1: and welcome to Hungry for History, a podcast that explores

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Speaker 1: our past and present through food.

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Speaker 2: On every episode, we'll talk about the history of some

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Speaker 2: of our favorite dishes, ingredients, and beverages from our culture.

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Speaker 1: So make yourself at home, even hi, everybody. Disclaimer, I'm

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Speaker 1: doing my hair while we're recording this podcast, so you

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Speaker 1: may hear a little bit of noise and what are

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Speaker 1: you doing.

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm at home, but I live on a very

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Speaker 2: busy intersection and it's rush hour traffic. Not doing my hair,

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Speaker 2: but I'm sitting in a very busy office on a

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Speaker 2: very busy corner in Los Angeles.

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Speaker 1: I just want everybody to know we have real lives.

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Speaker 1: We don't just sit around talking about food all the time.

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Speaker 1: Some of the time, but not all of the time.

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Speaker 1: I'm excited for this episode because I feel like food

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Speaker 1: can be used for good in so many ways, from

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Speaker 1: like you're Abuela making you soapita if they ow when

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Speaker 1: you're in the weather.

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Speaker 2: To starting a free breakfast program in your community. This

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Speaker 2: episode is all about food for good.

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Speaker 1: I love this topic and when you and I originally

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Speaker 1: spoke about like we should do an episode about it.

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Speaker 1: I just want to explain to our audience, like what

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Speaker 1: do we mean for food for good?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it could be so many different things. So of

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Speaker 2: course it could be activism through food. And the first

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Speaker 2: person that comes into my mind when I think of

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Speaker 2: that as jose Andres Right. He is a famous chef

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Speaker 2: who decided to start an organization to feed people around

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Speaker 2: the world during emergencies.

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Speaker 1: Or crises anywhere in the world. And he always says food.

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Speaker 1: What I love about his model is like food should

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Speaker 1: not be weaponized, Like there should not be people starving

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Speaker 1: anywhere in the world because of war, because of a hurricane,

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Speaker 1: because of you know, like food should not be leveraged

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Speaker 1: as a weapon.

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Speaker 2: Exactly exactly. He's amazing. I mean what he does. He

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Speaker 2: puts himself in in the middle of these incredibly dangerous

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Speaker 2: and just situations and he does what governments don't do.

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Speaker 2: I mean, he's served over four hundred million meals. It's incredible.

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Speaker 2: This man deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

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Speaker 1: Man For me, Holsandrez is the perfect example of someone

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Speaker 1: doing good with food on a global scale.

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Speaker 2: Talk about someone who's reshifted the course of his career

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Speaker 2: because he wanted to help people.

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Speaker 1: I mean, he's like a saint. I've always wanted to

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Speaker 1: go to one of the places and volunteer. I actually

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Speaker 1: did volunteer in Texas when the freeze happened in Texas,

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Speaker 1: and Holsandres was there with the World Central Kitchen providing

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Speaker 1: meals for everybody whose power was knocked out during this freeze.

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Speaker 1: And so the World Central Kitchen is usually the first

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Speaker 1: one on the front lines providing not only fresh meals,

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Speaker 1: but culturally sensitive meals in a response to like a

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Speaker 1: humanitarian crisis or a climate crisis or community crisis or

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Speaker 1: war zones. And remember when he started this, it was

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Speaker 1: in Haiti after the earthquake in twenty ten. And then

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Speaker 1: where really kind of where his concept and idea really

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Speaker 1: exploded was when he fed the people in Puerto Rico

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Speaker 1: after Hurricane Maria. And then from there it was kind

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Speaker 1: of it was more about these natural disasters, and then

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Speaker 1: it really shifted to these refugee humanitarian crisises, you know,

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Speaker 1: the war in the Ukraine, the war in Gaza. And

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Speaker 1: I mean, he really, this man is a saint.

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Speaker 2: He really is. So do you remember what prompted him

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Speaker 2: to do this, Like how he said, you know what,

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Speaker 2: I'm just going to do this. The governments, their local

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Speaker 2: governments aren't doing enough or can't do enough, So I'm

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Speaker 2: just going to take it upon myself to go out

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Speaker 2: there and use food to create community. And what you mentioned,

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Speaker 2: you stressed the culturally sensitive meals that I think is

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Speaker 2: just so thoughtful. I mean, he's not flipping burgers, no.

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Speaker 1: Is, and he's not just you know, putting a ham

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Speaker 1: sandwich together and putting it in a box and sending

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Speaker 1: it to these people in need. He's I don't know

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Speaker 1: what gave him the idea, but in Haiti, you know,

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Speaker 1: he was cooking with Haitians who were living in the camp,

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Speaker 1: and the Haitians were teaching him how to prepare their

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Speaker 1: beings locally, and so he realized, Oh, in a time

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Speaker 1: of disaster, people are comforted by their by their regional food.

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Speaker 1: And I thought, oh, what are like an aha moment,

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean?

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Speaker 2: Wow wow, And that makes perfect sense. When you feel sick,

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Speaker 2: you want your mom's cooking. It's unbelievable the things that

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Speaker 2: he has done.

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Speaker 3: What's Central Kitchen, the no profit I found it more

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Speaker 3: than a decade ago, always specializes in feeding communities after

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Speaker 3: natural and man made disasters. We are unique in how

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Speaker 3: we work and the aid we provide. We worked with

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Speaker 3: the first three organs of now because when you are

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Speaker 3: hungry or thirsty, you are hungry or thirsty today, not tomorrow.

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Speaker 3: We believe in the power of food to rebuild lives, communities,

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Speaker 3: and jobs. A plate of food is a plate of hope.

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Speaker 3: Unlike other eight organizations, we buy local food and we

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Speaker 3: trust local people to feed local people with the real

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Speaker 3: time intelligence, passion, and expertise.

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Speaker 1: Don't go anywhere hungry for history will be right back.

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Speaker 1: I feel like women have always played an important role,

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Speaker 1: specifically like in wartimes like during the Civil War, the

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Speaker 1: American Civil War, how women wrote cookbooks to raise funds

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Speaker 1: for social causes. And you know this was at a

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Speaker 1: time where they couldn't even own property. You have a

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Speaker 1: bank account without a man, and so to know that

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Speaker 1: women were like, what skill do I have? Oh? I

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Speaker 1: know how to book? Oh I know recipes. Yeah, let's

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Speaker 1: do a charitable cookbook or a community cookbook and maybe

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Speaker 1: we can you know, raise some funds Like that, to me,

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Speaker 1: it's crazy. I also I do remember this, You're the

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Speaker 1: cookbook crazy person. I am, but I remember a woman

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Speaker 1: suffragette cookbook. I remember, I just remember this concept. I

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Speaker 1: don't know where I read it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it is this this sort of concept,

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Speaker 2: and this was happening all over the world. But these

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Speaker 2: American civil these community cookbooks that you're talking about, are

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Speaker 2: so fascinating. The first one is called a Poetical Cookbook

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Speaker 2: by a woman named Maria Moss, and it was published

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Speaker 2: in eighteen sixty four to subsidize medical costs for Union

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Speaker 2: soldiers during the Civil War. And this is where, you know,

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Speaker 2: like you said, women couldn't vote, women couldn't do so

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Speaker 2: many things, so they were using the kitchen for activism

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Speaker 2: to raise funds to organize because it was sort of innocuous,

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Speaker 2: which is so fascinating. In this poetical cookbook. We should

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Speaker 2: include that on the link to this episode because it

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Speaker 2: is available online. And it's really interesting because it literally

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Speaker 2: is a poetical it has poetry with you know, among

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Speaker 2: the recipes. Yeah, it's really beautiful. What a great idea,

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Speaker 2: I know, it really is. And then the suffrage at

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Speaker 2: COOPO In eighteen eighty six, a group of progressive women

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Speaker 2: in Massachusetts decided to write a cookbook to raise funds

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Speaker 2: for you know, to spread their agenda, to spread their

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Speaker 2: groups agendas. So and they sold these groups that you know,

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Speaker 2: these these books were sold at fairs and at festivals.

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Speaker 2: And I guess the modern equivalent would be like those

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Speaker 2: Junior League cookbooks you know that you might, Yes, sometime

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Speaker 2: when I go to librariy sales, like, I always pick

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Speaker 2: them up and they're they're so interesting and they also

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Speaker 2: these types of books give us a sense of history

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Speaker 2: that no other source, you know, really really does because

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Speaker 2: they are so personal.

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Speaker 1: Well yeah, and you know, I know, I mean in

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Speaker 1: Mexico there was a lot of activism with cookbooks and

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Speaker 1: specifically women because during the revolution there was a woman,

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Speaker 1: Anna Maria Hernandez know that she was writing cookbooks for

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Speaker 1: like the working class, and she dedicated one of them

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Speaker 1: to the president elect, Lazaro Cardenas, who she dedicated to

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Speaker 1: a great friend of revolutionary women. She encouraged education by

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Speaker 1: telling female leaders to read. She stressed the importance of

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Speaker 1: cleanliness and organization in the home and in the kitchen,

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Speaker 1: but she also encouraged readers to take advantage of Mexico's

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Speaker 1: rich farmland to grow their own fruits and vegetables. So

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Speaker 1: I thought like, oh my gosh, like this wasn't just

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Speaker 1: an American thing it was, it was also a Mexican thing.

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Speaker 1: And she also helped simplify rural women's lives by fighting

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Speaker 1: to increase the number of public mills for nixtamal, which

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Speaker 1: is that's the process of corn, right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, It's amazing that women did this.

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Speaker 2: And she didn't write just this one cookbook. She wrote

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Speaker 2: a series of cookbooks, and she was just this is

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Speaker 2: nineteen thirty four, soon after the revolution. Women in Mexico were,

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Speaker 2: you know, asserting themselves in their role in the community

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Speaker 2: through books. She had a highly successful cooking school, the

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Speaker 2: first owned and operated by a Mexican woman in the country.

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Speaker 2: She published over one hundred and fifty cookbooks. But what

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Speaker 2: I find how she ties into this idea of activism

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Speaker 2: is that among the cookbooks that she published were things

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Speaker 2: like makingkilatinas you know, making cakes, making sausages, and these

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Speaker 2: gave women tools to make these products from home and

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Speaker 2: start their own businesses. So her motto was cooking is

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Speaker 2: the root of economics. So they gave them new tools

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Speaker 2: to start their own businesses from their homes and she

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Speaker 2: was based in Mexico City, but she also offered correspondence courses,

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Speaker 2: so if you lived anywhere in the world, and you

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Speaker 2: know anywhere in the country, are also in the Caribbean.

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Speaker 2: There's one diploma that I that I came across that

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Speaker 2: she gave to a woman in Puerto Rico who was

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Speaker 2: taking her class. So she really threw her cookbooks. Through

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Speaker 2: a magazine that she had, she was able to reach

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Speaker 2: women all over so that they could start businesses from

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Speaker 2: their own homes.

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Speaker 1: The most famous form of activism I also remember was

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Speaker 1: the Black Panthers Free Breakfast for school children program. I mean,

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Speaker 1: of course I don't I wasn't born. I wasn't born then,

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Speaker 1: but I remember reading about this because you know, I

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Speaker 1: think people think of Black Panthers as you know, one thing,

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Speaker 1: but you know, every big it's message about ending police brutality,

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Speaker 1: and they really, you know, encouraging black people's survival, like

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Speaker 1: that's what they were known for. But I remember the

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Speaker 1: Black Panther Free Breakfast program's amazing and they've had tens

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Speaker 1: of thousands of hungry kids. Yeah, it's crazy.

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Speaker 2: They did. They and at its peak they fed tens

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Speaker 2: of thousands of kids, and the FBI had at the time.

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Speaker 2: J Edgar Hoover, he hated the Black Panthers, called the

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Speaker 2: program potentially the greatest threat to efforts by authorities to

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Speaker 2: neutralize the Black Panther Party and destroy what it stands for.

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Speaker 2: And the Chicago police even broke into a church where

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Speaker 2: they were feeding kids and urinated on the food. Like

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Speaker 2: there was just all of this stuff to stop them

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Speaker 2: from doing from doing good. They were feeding hungry kids.

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Speaker 1: And I remember the USDA tried to pilot the free

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Speaker 1: breakfast program in the nineteen sixties, but it never took

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Speaker 1: off until the Black Panther breakfast programs, yeah exactly dismantled. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: isn't that crazy? Like they were like that, you know,

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Speaker 1: kids need to.

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Speaker 2: Eat, exactly, and they did it. But then the government said, Okay,

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Speaker 2: well now we're gonna now we're gonna we're gonna take

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Speaker 2: credit for it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, why don't we do it? We're at this Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but yeah, I think it if it wasn't for the

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Speaker 1: actions of the Black Panthers breakfast program, I don't think

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Speaker 1: we would have our current form of that today.

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Speaker 4: Now.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it's amazing, you know, they piloted. They began

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Speaker 2: something that is so necessary that is still happening today.

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Speaker 2: After the break, we'll hear from Meymna Hussein Katan, the

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Speaker 2: founder of Flavors from Afar, a restaurant and social enterprise

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Speaker 2: helping former refugees and asylum seekers preserve recipes from their

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Speaker 2: home countries.

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Speaker 1: She's also helping them learn valuable skills to help them

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Speaker 1: flourish as entrepreneurs. You don't want to miss it. Stay

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Speaker 1: with us.

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Speaker 2: There are so many people doing good all over the world.

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Speaker 2: I remember watching Searching for Mexico and the first episode

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Speaker 2: you visit it Casato Chan Refugee Center in Mexico City.

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Speaker 2: Talk to us about that. Such an experience. It's the

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Speaker 2: first shelter for immigrants in Mexico City, so most of

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Speaker 2: the immigrants from Central America and Lura s Guatemala, Cube,

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Speaker 2: there's Cubans, there's Haitians. It's really the first shelter for

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Speaker 2: immigrants in the city. And on the show we got

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Speaker 2: to interview a lot of the residents there, and the

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Speaker 2: residents cooked dishes from their homeland and they share with

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Speaker 2: their housemates, so they When I was there, there was

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Speaker 2: a Cuban guy and he made like a form of

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Speaker 2: pro babika. I forget exactly what it was called, but

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Speaker 2: and he'll make it for you know, for the whole house.

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Speaker 2: And somebody from yeah, from Africa, will you know, cook

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Speaker 2: something from their house.

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Speaker 1: And I thought, God, that's such a great idea. Like,

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Speaker 1: like we said, you know, a lot of times, food

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Speaker 1: is the only thing that travels with you. You've left

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Speaker 1: your belongings, you've left your families, you've left every single memory, possession, photo, like,

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Speaker 1: you can't take things with you when you're migrating, and

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Speaker 1: the only thing you have is like memories tied with food.

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Speaker 1: And so I just thought it was a beautiful program

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Speaker 1: that she ran down there.

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Speaker 2: It's incredible. I love that you included that in the

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Speaker 2: show too. And here in La there is an incredible

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Speaker 2: woman helping former refugees and asylum seekers through this restaurant

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Speaker 2: called Flavors from Afar. It started with this idea that

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Speaker 2: making and sharing food is a universal gesture. It's basically

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Speaker 2: just what you said and what you experienced at Gasatochan

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Speaker 2: in Mexico, but this universal gesture that transcends cultural boundaries

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Speaker 2: and speaks a language of love that is understood by all.

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Speaker 2: You might not have been able to take the photograph

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Speaker 2: of you know, your mom or whatever, but you have

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Speaker 2: these memories of you know, a food, because food is

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Speaker 2: about so much more than you know, eating right and flavors.

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Speaker 2: This restaurant is a testament to the power of community

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Speaker 2: and compassion. So there are chefs from Ukraine, from Haiti,

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Speaker 2: from Iran, from Guatemala, from Congo. It's affiliated with the

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Speaker 2: Tia Foundation, which is also run by Maymuna, and it's

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Speaker 2: a nonprofit committed to supporting refugees and asylum seekers.

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Speaker 1: And it also has that designation from the Michelin bib Gourmand.

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Speaker 1: So it's not like a Mission Star, but it is

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Speaker 1: listed among the top Los Angeles restaurants two years in

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Speaker 1: a row, so that's.

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Speaker 2: Yes, it's amazing. And Maymuna herself has been honored as

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Speaker 2: a CNN hero. I mean, and this place is extraordinary.

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Speaker 2: We had conversation visited Flavors from Afar. I actually met

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Speaker 2: her before the pandemic. She popped up on my social

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Speaker 2: media and I was like, I have to make friends

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Speaker 2: with this person, and so I reached out to her

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Speaker 2: and she was opening the original location of Flavors from

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Speaker 2: Afar in Little Ethiopia and we met there. The restaurant

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Speaker 2: was opened the week of the lockdowns in twenty twenty.

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Speaker 2: She has since closed this location and she's opening a

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Speaker 2: new location in the heart of Hollywood on Hollywood Boulevard.

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Speaker 2: And here's my conversation with Mee Mona Enjoy. So we

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Speaker 2: are at Flavors from Afar on Hollywood Boulevard in East Hollywood,

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Speaker 2: the most incredible place with Maymuna, Who's going to tell

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Speaker 2: us all about this amazing space and give us a tour.

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Speaker 1: So Hi, Moenah, and she's.

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Speaker 4: A welcome to the space here. I'm so lucky. It

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Speaker 4: includes the two rooms, which one side looks and feels

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Speaker 4: like an art gallery, and on the other side we

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Speaker 4: have this beautiful patio space that faces Hollywood Boulevard. There's

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Speaker 4: a warmth, and I really want it to feel like

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Speaker 4: you know, you're at home, you're visiting a friend, but

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Speaker 4: a little RESORTI vibe.

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Speaker 2: It's very sophisticated.

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Speaker 4: Right now, we are available for catering, venue rental, private dining,

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Speaker 4: and I want to add something unique because a lot

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Speaker 4: of the rep chefs we work with have kids, so

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Speaker 4: it'd be nice to incorporate like an art station for

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Speaker 4: children or a little bit of childcare.

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Speaker 1: What is Flavors from Afar.

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Speaker 4: Flavors from Afar is a social enterprise where we partner

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Speaker 4: with former refugees and asylum seekers that preserve their recipes

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Speaker 4: and we do the labor for them. But our main

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Speaker 4: focus is to really celebrate the chefs and their cuisines

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Speaker 4: and to let Los Angeles know that this person wants

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Speaker 4: to create their own catering company and we help make

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Speaker 4: it happen. I love this location. We're in the heart

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Speaker 4: of Hollywood, right off of Hollywood Boulevard, next to the

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Speaker 4: one on one freeway.

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Speaker 1: Cross streets are.

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Speaker 4: Hollywood Boulevard and Wilton. Right now, you could hear buses

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Speaker 4: and cars and engines and pedestrians and all the life

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Speaker 4: of the city. It's just so amazing.

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Speaker 2: It is wonderful being in the heart of Los Angeles,

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Speaker 2: the heart of Hollywood, which is so multicultural.

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Speaker 4: I think over the year, there's what I've learned with

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Speaker 4: working with refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented families from all over

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Speaker 4: the world is we have more in common than we

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Speaker 4: do differences, and once people arrive, there is this desire

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Speaker 4: to really look out for their children and guarantee safety

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Speaker 4: and security, and no matter what country they're from, there's

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Speaker 4: just absolute love for their families, but also this grief

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Speaker 4: that surrounds them. And I think the experience overall feels daunting.

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Speaker 4: It's scary, it's traumatic, highly emotional, brings up bad memories,

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Speaker 4: there's PTSD. All of that is true, and there is

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Speaker 4: this beauty of preservation of culture, preservation of food, language, recipes, music,

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Speaker 4: And that's what I really want to emphasize at Tia, And.

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Speaker 2: I love what you're saying about the mission of Flavors

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Speaker 2: or one of the missions of flavorsus keeping these flavors

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Speaker 2: alive or keeping these recipes alive and focusing on community,

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Speaker 2: on home, on the positive aspects of life in a

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Speaker 2: new place, of starting life in a new place. So

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Speaker 2: what are some of the recipes that the refugee chefs

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Speaker 2: here at Flavors from Afar are keeping alive.

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Speaker 4: Well, we are really creative in our partnership with the

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Speaker 4: chefs that we work with, and our priority are dishes

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Speaker 4: that they would make at home for their children. So

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Speaker 4: we would constantly ask them like what would you make

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Speaker 4: for your family? That's not easy to find at a

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Speaker 4: local restaurant. An example would be Chefs Sonya from Guatemala.

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Speaker 4: Many of our customers actually have no idea that there

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Speaker 4: was a connection to Chinese immigration in Guatemala, and a

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Speaker 4: few of our customers when she's highlighted that month and

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Speaker 4: they see on the menu that there's chowmen, they get

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Speaker 4: really emotional. And there was this one man in particular

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Speaker 4: that had to pause and cry for a moment because

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Speaker 4: he said he hasn't had that dish since he was

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Speaker 4: a child back home.

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Speaker 1: So that's the intentionality.

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Speaker 4: It's not only fun food, cool food percentage back to refuge,

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Speaker 4: it's also what did you preserve, what reminds you of

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Speaker 4: back home? What do you make for your kids now?

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Speaker 4: And not everyone has access to the same recipes and

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Speaker 4: spices from their home countries, so there's always this Los

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Speaker 4: Angeles twist.

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Speaker 2: It's beautiful.

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Speaker 4: It's really beautiful to witness.

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Speaker 1: There were so many folks we wanted to talk to

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Speaker 1: for our Food for Good episode, and there are so

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Speaker 1: many people doing so much good out there. You know,

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Speaker 1: what I loved about doing this episode is like really

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Speaker 1: stressing the importance as to food. You know, it's not

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Speaker 1: in our constitution in the United States. It's not a

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Speaker 1: promise to us, but it is a human right that

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Speaker 1: we would have access to food or you know, the

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Speaker 1: right to like an adequate standard of living. And I

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Speaker 1: think food should not be weaponized, food should not be withheld.

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Speaker 1: Having adequate food is a right, that a human right

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Speaker 1: that we should all have. And I think it's it's

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Speaker 1: beautiful that all of these these people that we talked about,

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Speaker 1: and so many more that we didn't talk about, are doing,

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Speaker 1: you know, food for good.

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Speaker 2: So many people around the world. And yes, I agree,

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Speaker 2: and I also love the idea that this food is

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Speaker 2: culturally sensitive. You know that these traditions are are being

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Speaker 2: preserved and are carried forward and are changing in some ways.

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Speaker 2: So that's another really amazing part of it. Yes, food

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Speaker 2: should never be a weapon, but also the fact that

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Speaker 2: food always connects to home and community, I think is

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Speaker 2: something that's very valuable preserved traditions.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think people know this, but the world

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Speaker 1: actually produces enough food to feed everyone on the planet.

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Speaker 1: It does. The problem is access and availability, and you know,

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Speaker 1: both of those things are always disrupted by many things,

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Speaker 1: weather and food, waste and conflict, and so you know,

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Speaker 1: ending Hunger is one of the greatest challenges of our time,

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Speaker 1: and it's frustrating knowing that the world produces enough food

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Speaker 1: to feed everyone on the planet. It's just access and availability.

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Speaker 1: Once again, you guys. I'm at home and so my

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Speaker 1: son is a little loud, so I apologize for this podcast.

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Speaker 1: If you can hear him in the background.

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Speaker 2: Hmmm, Sandi, He's so sweet.

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Speaker 1: Thank you everyone, Thanks for listening to Hungry for History.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much.

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Speaker 1: Hungry for History is a Hyphene media production in partnership

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Speaker 1: with Iheart's Michael Fura podcast network.

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Speaker 2: For more of your favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app,

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Speaker 2: Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.