The FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine and Overtown residents are cooking up something salubrious.
The Overtown Cookbook contains delicious recipes that also happen to be quite healthful. And if the Historic Overtown Public Health Empowerment (HOPE) Collaborative has its way, the Overtown Cookbook may help make our entire South Florida community a bit healthier.
The HOPE Collaborative is a campus-community partnership that builds on community assets to promote health and empowerment. HOPE and the Overtown Cookbook have their genesis in a community study identified high mortality rates from cardiovascular disease in the Overtown community and detailed the health impacts of social factors such as poverty and disenfranchisement. The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health in 2008, was conducted by HOPE co-founders, including David Brown, M.D., Family Physician at the FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine; Tony Jennings, Overtown native and teacher at Booker T. Washington Senior High School in Overtown; and Luther Brewster, Ph.D., Chief of Policy and Community Development at the FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine.
“Part of the reason many South Floridians suffer from chronic diseases is that they’re cooking traditional foods but not keeping as active as was traditional in the past,” Jennings said. “We expect the cookbook will help show that simple modifications of traditional recipes can result in easy-to-prepare, tasty recipes that are also healthful. In addition, we expect the cookbook will help establish a greater community-wide consciousness about the link between good nutrition, health and longevity.”
Community/Campus Partnership
Dr. Brown and Jennings co-direct the cookbook project with the participation of Booker T. Washington High School and FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine faculty and students, who collected and developed recipes with HOPE partners. The students cooked and tasted every recipe and selected their favorites for the cookbook. The result: 31 delicious, healthful recipes for meals and snacks, along with information about nutrition and advice about food shopping and proper eating habits. The book also discusses common issues such as emotional eating.
HOPE partners are also working with Marvin Dunn, Ph.D., who retired in 2006 as Head of FIU’s Department of Psychology and went on to found “Roots in the City,” a nonprofit dedicated to creating jobs and beautifying Miami’s inner city. The HOPE Collaborative recently brought its healthful food to the grand opening of the Roots in the City Farmer’s Market. The market, located at Northwest 10th Street and Second Avenue, makes locally grown organic produce affordable to Overtown residents through a program that doubles the value of food stamps used at the market. At the event, visitors sampled recipes from the Overtown Cookbook prepared by the Booker T. Washington students, with Chef Michael Schwartz using produce grown in Overtown.
Cookbook Contributors
The cookbook is the result of collaboration among many individuals and institutions. In addition to the FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine and Jennings, contributors include: Tania Rivera of FIU’s Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work; Makeba Burke, FIU Public Health intern; Shirlene Ingraham, owner of Jackson’s Soul Food Restaurant; Pascale Jean, Dietician with the Miami-Dade County Health Department; Chef Michael Moran with FIU’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, and faculty and students from universities as near as the University of Miami and as far as the University of Oregon. The project is supported by a grant from the Dade Community Foundation, Greater Miami’s permanent endowment since 1967.
The Overtown Cookbook, which sells for $30 (paperback) and $45 (hard cover), is being promoted at food competitions, health fairs, wine and food festivals and other community events. All proceeds support the HOPE Collaborative after-school program at Booker T. Washington High School. For more information or to purchase a copy, contact Makeba Burke via e-mail at mburke@fiu.edu or by calling (305) 810-9595.