Closing the Food Disparity Gap One Food Desert at a Time
As a child when you are hungry you just run to the table with excitement, ready to eat. You do not think about where dinner comes from, it just magically appears. As someone who grew up eating anything WIC and Food Stamps, or SNAP, could buy, I was intrigued to learn more about Chef Amber Williams’ book, Surviving the Food Desert. The book shares recipes meant for the everyday cook with access to limited fresh ingredients and pantry staples.
Raised on meals pulled together by her mom from local food drive boxes, Amber is a self-taught chef who you may know from Food Network’s Supermarket Stakeout. Coming from a lineage of chefs, restaurateurs, and entrepreneurs, cooking captivated Amber at an early age. She planted herself in front of the TV, “I was stuck to the TV since I was a child, watching public access TV…[then] when we did have cable, watching Food Network.” She stalked any cooking show she could find, “When people ask me what school did I go to, I’m like ‘Oh I graduated from Food Network University.’” By the time she reached college Amber became known as the go-to person on campus for sweet treats. Her sweet sensations were in such high demand that after school one of her college friends reached out and asked Amber to make her wedding cake.
Today, after a short stint in corporate America, Amber has her own culinary business, Le Rouge, “an elevated Creole Fusion brand specializing in providing professional, customizable and unique catering solutions”. Starting super lean in the early years, Amber maintained the fire to survive on her own. “I had to define what was and what was not important, and what was and was not a necessity.”
As Amber developed her culinary career she always remembered where she came from. While teaching a culinary class at the North Texas Food Bank she also listened and learned. Attendees of her cooking classes had questions, like “What is a butternut squash?” and “How do I cook that?” The more questions came, the more she began to recognize the need for education. Not only did people in food deserts need food, but they also needed education on ways to cook the food in nutritious ways.
When Amber set out to write Surviving the Food Desert we were all in the middle of a pandemic. This time in her life inspired her not only to include recipes in the book, but there are also moments of motivation sprinkled throughout the book. Some recipes in the book are staples from her childhood such as her mom’s “Full Pack Dinner”, which is a one-pot meal or a “gift on a plate” as Amber describes it.
For anyone struggling to make something out of nothing, or trying to decide what to do with the can of beans that has been in their pantry for months, Amber says to “Be creative, don’t be afraid to substitute, use what you have, and make it your own.”
The Surviving the Food Desert Project is about “bridging accessible resources to sustainable & approachable educational programming to improve and elevate the quality of life for citizens living in food-disparaged communities in order to further close the food & health disparity gap.” Accompanying the book is a resource guide, a directory for how people can be a part of the initiative in their community and find the closest organization near them.
For any up and coming chefs who grew up with a dream like Amber’s she shares some lessons learned. “Build a community, and get up under some people; be humble, work for people, even your peers. Envision what you want for your company and define your why, don’t rely on money. Find your signature brand or dish. There are tons of resources available like the Small Business Administration, chambers of commerce, and Google.”
Surviving the Food Desert is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, and more.
Discover more from Flights and Foods
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
16,317 Comments
Prime Biome
Wonderful blog! I found it while searching on Yahoo News. Do you have any suggestions on how to get listed in Yahoo News? I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there! Thank you
textilfolie
Hi, just required you to know I he added your site to my Google bookmarks due to your layout. But seriously, I believe your internet site has 1 in the freshest theme I??ve came across. It extremely helps make reading your blog significantly easier.
mitolyn reviews
It’s really a great and helpful piece of info. I’m happy that you just shared this helpful information with us. Please stay us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.
ice water hack for weight loss
Thanks a lot for sharing this with all of us you really know what you’re talking about! Bookmarked. Please also visit my website =). We could have a link exchange agreement between us!
PrimeBiome
obviously like your website but you have to check the spelling on several of your posts. Many of them are rife with spelling problems and I find it very bothersome to tell the reality however I will definitely come back again.
Herpafend Reviews
My husband and i got joyful when Michael could complete his web research through the entire ideas he got from your own web pages. It’s not at all simplistic to just find yourself giving out techniques which often men and women have been making money from. And we all acknowledge we have you to be grateful to for this. The most important explanations you’ve made, the easy site menu, the friendships you can give support to foster – it’s most terrific, and it’s really helping our son in addition to us do think that concept is awesome, which is certainly particularly important. Thanks for the whole lot!
salt trick for men
I like what you guys are up too. Such clever work and reporting! Keep up the excellent works guys I have incorporated you guys to my blogroll. I think it will improve the value of my web site 🙂
solarpv
It’s actually a great and helpful piece of information. I am happy that you shared this helpful information with us. Please keep us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.
Herpafend
As soon as I found this website I went on reddit to share some of the love with them.
salt trick for men
You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this matter to be actually something that I think I would never understand. It seems too complicated and very broad for me. I am looking forward for your next post, I’ll try to get the hang of it!