September 16, 2025 • 43 mins
In this riveting conversation, food security activist Peter Ivey reveals that approximately two-thirds of Jamaica's population experiences food insecurity despite the island's abundant natural resources. As founder of Mission Food Possible and CEO of The Reggae Chefs, Peter is fighting to reconnect communities with their culinary heritage and build resilient local food systems.
"I didn't choose food security," Peter explains, "it chose me when I realized I probably was food insecure my whole life growing up in Jamaica." His organization identifies the most valuable local produce in different parishes, then trains school canteen workers, parents, and community leaders to create nutritious, affordable meals using these ingredients. The impact? Over 60,000 people, mostly children, now have improved diets and communities are regaining lost culinary skills.
Peter's mission reminds us that food security isn't just about having enough to eat – it's about maintaining the cultural knowledge, skills, and connections that allow communities to thrive independently.
Links & Resources:
- Mission Food Possible: missionfoodpossible.com
- Follow Peter on Instagram: @peteriveyofficial
- Email: info@missionfoodpossible.com
Support How to Support Carry On Friends
- Donate: If you believe in our mission and want to help amplify Caribbean voices, consider making a donation.
- Get Merch: Support Carry On Friends by purchasing merchandise from our store.
Connect with @carryonfriends - Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
A Breadfruit Media Production
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody, Welcome back to another episode
of Carry On Friends theCaribbean American Experience,
and my guest this episode isnone other than Peter Ivey.
Peter, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Yeah, I'm carrying on .
Thank you for having me, gladto be here.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
I'm glad you're here because in the pre-chat we get a
window where you're going tobring.
So I'm excited for thecommunity to hear.
But before we get there, tellthe community a little bit about
yourself.
I already know where you comefrom because we already speak
the language, but tell them alittle bit about you.
Know where you're from, thework you do.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
All right, carrying on is a task.
That's the way I'm going to try.
Born and raised Jamaican, comefrom Spanish town, attended
Jamaica College.
Migrated from Jamaica, livingin New York for a while, I'm
known as an entrepreneur serialentrepreneur, if you will.
I'm also a food securityactivist.
(01:00):
I'm the founder of Mission FoodPossible and the founder and
CEO of the Reggae Chefs and P3Culinary Kit.
P3 Culinary Kit is the world'sfirst culinary supplies and
uniforms founded for sociallyresponsible chefs.
Right, I'm also an author.
I published two children'sbooks.
The last children's book,dashin Island, was selected by
(01:24):
the government of Jamaica to bedistributed to primary
school-aged children.
All right, I'm also a speaker.
I spend time speaking onvarious platforms around the
world on food activism andentrepreneurship and anywhere I
can fit in.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Basically, Wonderful, so let's start at the beginning
.
What does it mean to be a foodsecurity activist?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Great question.
I believe that there's adisparity between where healthy
food, affordable food, safe food, nutritious food is distributed
, and I decided to do somethingabout it.
Right and so, literally as theword says, I activate my own
(02:08):
resources to ensure that we canbalance the scale a little bit.
I also agitate the powers thatbe to ensure that we can get
policies changed.
We can raise awareness aroundthese issues.
Hunger and food security is thenumber two problem in the world
, as per the United Nations.
Right and so, when we talkabout an issue so big and we
(02:30):
look at Jamaica being one of thetop countries in the Caribbean,
two-thirds of Jamaicanpopulation is food insecure
right, and so somebody have tosay something about it, somebody
have to do something about it,somebody have to make sure that
the people are not aware thatthis is a crisis.
They know that this is a crisis, and so I agitate and educate
(02:53):
and raise awareness.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
All right, we're going to go back even more to
the basic.
What does it mean or what doesit look like to be food insecure
?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Another great question, Kerri.
It's a rule, man.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
That's bringing it, we bring it.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah.
So I like to tell people thatyou know I didn't choose food
security.
You know it kind of chose mebecause when I got enlightened I
realized that I probably wasfood insecure my whole entire
life, growing up in Spanish Town, jamaica, passing for GSC, and
then my mother had to strugglefor fine school fee and then
(03:32):
sometime we didn't even have thelunch money and everything For
me.
Food security can even bedeadlier for the population than
straight out hunger andstarvation, because that you can
see.
Food insecurity you can't seeright.
And so imagine children first ofall going to school hungry
(03:53):
without breakfast, right.
Having to skip meals or skipschool because their parents
can't afford food to eat.
Imagine people who aremalnourished because they're
only eating canned food dailybecause it's the only thing they
can afford and so they arelacking the vital nutrients that
they need.
Right.
Imagine the stress of workingpeople who can only afford to
(04:18):
pay rent but can't afford thesupermarket run.
Right.
Imagine households that cannotsurvive on one paycheck if only
one paycheck coming in and sopeople have to kind of divvy up
who gets to go to school today,who get to have lunch today,
what are we having for dinnertoday?
Right, that's what foodsecurity look like.
Food security also is evidentin our hospitals when you look
(04:41):
at our diabetes rate, when youlook at our hypertension rate,
when you look at all of thosediseases caused by not eating
proper food, not having accessto healthy food, not eating
enough food right.
So many of our children arebeing diagnosed with issues that
could be solved by breakfast.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
That's what it looked like.
You're saying so many things.
The questions keep comingbecause you say healthy food
we're in America.
You know, like everybody,definition of a healthy food is
a moving target every time.
You know.
You know things that we grew up, you know.
You know, pick the latest trend, jackfruit.
We grew up with Walipajackfruit.
(05:21):
So, like, who really defineswhat's healthy food anymore?
Because it feels like what'sdefined as healthy food is based
on the latest trend and so forpeople who don't have the means,
as you describe it, foodsecurity you know what does that
(05:42):
look like for them?
And it could look like peoplelike me because, as you're
saying, mr Well, I don't know.
So that's why I'm like this isbeyond enlightening at this
point.
So just let's define what'shealthy and nutritious.
You know, beyond trends, fadand you know, let's be real you
(06:05):
know interest in driving aparticular product in the
marketplace for consumption.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Wonderful question.
I think it's a great time tohighlight that our work, mission
Food Possible.
Most of our work takes place inthe Caribbean.
Most of our work takes place inJamaica, caribbean.
Most of our work takes place inJamaica.
I spend time speaking inAmerica and doing workshops in
America.
But the reason why I mentionedthat distinction is because food
(06:33):
access looks very differentwhere you are located, piece,
but it's great to touch on that.
We know what a balanced meallooks like for every age group,
right?
We know what nutrients we'resupposed to be receiving and
(06:54):
where those nutrients should becoming from.
Now, when you live in a placelike America, you are literally
bound to the commercials orwhat's being advertised or
what's being promoted in thesupermarket, and that may or may
not be exactly what's good forus.
And we know a little bitcontroversial here, kerian, we
know that a lot of the food thatis being driven in a place like
America is capitalism.
It's money driven, it's notfocused on health, right.
(07:16):
But let's shift to Jamaica andI love the Caribbean because a
lot of our people have a lot ofautonomy about what they eat.
But they lot of autonomy aboutwhat they eat, but they just
don't know what to eat.
We've been not only misled butbombarded with the big food
companies with canned food.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Sometimes the same food that they sell in the can
growing in your backyard.
Listen, all of a sudden youknow there was a product I'm not
going to say you know that Isee they sell it in Canada.
And I said, but I remember,going to the back of the yard I
picked the gungo peas fingerblack up, avoid the worm.
You know all of that.
And now it's in a can, you know.
Or even the mint, like the mintbush grow wild at the side of
(08:03):
the house.
I forgot to pick it and boil it.
Every morning over now a teabag,and those are the things that I
miss growing up.
Trust me, Peter, like everymorning before I'm planting my
egg, we're going to get my minttea before I go to school.
And, as I say, the gungo peasmemory and the black finger,
(08:24):
when you pick the gungo peas,like those were things that I I
grew up the breadfruit, the aki,whatever on the tree to to see
what I, when I go back toJamaica, sometimes it feels like
it's so I don't want to sayAmericanized, but that's the
word Miguel used right nowversus what I remember growing
up and experiencing life in theCaribbean, so that's really
(08:47):
resonating with me.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Absolutely, and you just said something important.
I don't want to lose myprevious thought, though In many
ways, for our people to becomeAmericanized is to be on the
path to food insecurity.
Let me say it again, kerian Inmany ways, for our people to
become Americanized in the waywe eat, we're putting ourselves
(09:13):
on a path to be food insecure,and I'll get to that right after
.
And so we talk about proportion.
You just mentioned plantingyour carbs, you mentioned eggs,
your protein, and you need yourveggies, and so when we talk
about people having access tothe food, some people have an
access, especially people inrural areas, but don't know what
(09:34):
to eat, and so it's easy topick a mango and tear that mango
with your teeth, and then youeat six mango on your belly full
and you got your bed.
What I'm finding now is thatpeople actually don't want to
peel yam no more.
People don't want to peelbanana no more.
It's too much work.
You give me a look of confusion, but the generation is looking
(09:56):
at these foods as difficult food.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
You know what.
The other day I was talking tosomebody and you know, sometimes
when you peel the banana, youknow you split it, you put it in
a pot and boil and open it.
But then someone was I wasputting banana in soup, because
sometimes me like banana in soupand they say how you peel the
banana.
Me say, well, you know, no,hold on, used to teach you for
peeling banana.
You hold it down in other waterand that's how you peel it so
(10:20):
it make it easier for come off.
Yes, your finger might still,might still black up, but it's
part of the experience and Irealized that things that I knew
growing up and I was telling mymom I said the one thing I wish
I knew was to identify when abreadfruit turn and and I
already ferocious versus the oneway I can put in a soup.
That's the only thing that Idon't remember having the skill
(10:41):
for.
But knowing that skill is lostwith the elders because it is a
skill for know which breadfruitis which and you know what's
ready for a type of, the type ofcooking it desires, whether you
want to roast it or whether youwant to peel it and cook it in
a you know one pot with dumplingand banana, or put it in a soup
, so miss it?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yes, absolutely.
So everything we are saying andyou're touching on so many
different aspects of MissionFood Possible?
First, you touched on thispolitical aspect.
What role does policy play infood security?
What you just touched on iscustoms and culture.
Now, our elders, who had thatknowledge that you just spoke?
(11:24):
The knowledge can't tell when abreadfruit is in its various
stages of consumption.
If we're losing that knowledge,our people is losing something
vital to our nutrition and ourcultural identity.
Cultural identity isn'tstrictly linked to culinary
identity.
So all of those things are partof food security.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Man.
I love it because a huge partof what I talk about the show is
about preservation and ourcultural identity.
Like you know, like I wastelling somebody the other day
that I don't have a rice cookerand I said I don't want to lose
this skill on about knowing howto cook rice, literally just put
the rice in the pot, no muchwater and watching the pot and I
(12:09):
get it.
A rice cooker is convenient,but there's a fundamental skill
that you lose by not knowing howto cook rice, the way, how we
grew up.
Knowing how to cook the riceabsolutely I'm with you, peter.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
I'm with you, I like it you just touch on another
pillar without even knowing it.
So we didn't even get intomission food possible yet, but
you're just on another pillarwithout even knowing it.
See, we didn't even get intoMission Food Possible yet, but
you're just touching anotherpillar.
You're just moving through thepillars.
We have three pillars rightEmpower, educate and sustain.
Mission Food Possible is rootedin exactly what you just said,
that education piece.
As chefs, what Mission FoodPossible do is that we identify
(12:47):
what we call MVPs.
We have a tool that we use toidentify what are the most
important crops and foods to ourcommunity.
Once you've identified them, wecall them the MVPs.
We bring chefs into thatcommunity and train food leaders
.
So we're talking about parents,canteen workers, anybody who's
responsible for cooking food inour communities.
We train them how to cook avariety of things creatively and
(13:10):
inexpensively with their MVPs,and so we are retaining cooking
skills in our community andwhere it's being diluted, we are
reminding the people that thisis how you get fresh food by
picking it fresh, harvestingfresh, and if you have forgotten
the skill needed, this is howyou do it.
(13:30):
So you just touch on one of thepillars.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Wow, um, all right, so where we go from here?
Because it's just like to methis is.
It's really resonating, becausesometimes people feel like I
live in a you know, a yesteryearrose colored lens.
But it's not.
You know, I lost my grandmotherso I will never hear her
teaching me how to identify thebreadfruit, but I do remember
(13:57):
how.
For me, coconut drops full ofsugar, yes, but I know how to
make it like.
I can visually see her makingit Like.
You know, I was telling mybrother who was teaching his
wife how to make the rum cakeand I said you know why they
soak the rum, the raisins?
Because, you know, in Jamaicawe have, you know, jump pan.
(14:17):
You know our guests run out sothey had to soak it.
You know, now you can do nowwith, maybe, access and modern
technology and what things thatwe can retain in the process.
So in all of the things thatyou are doing, all your pillars,
(14:39):
you know you've identified that.
You know the how-to is missingthe education.
Now, you and I I don't knowabout you, but I went to an
all-girls school in Moby and upuntil ninth grade, I know I had
one session of food andnutrition class every week and
we had to learn about enzymes,this and that.
(15:01):
So you and I know not everybodyfortunate to have that kind of
structured learning about lipids, all of these things and what
have you.
So how do people then identifya balanced meal?
You know, because some peoplemay not know what's a balanced
meal.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So that resource is online.
For those who have access to it, it's the easiest information
to have access to.
And so I'm a realistic person,Karen.
Right, For those who haveaccess to it, it's the easiest
information to have access to.
And so I'm a realistic person,Karen.
Right.
For those who have theopportunity to have that
information being right in theirface, provide it to them.
That's fine.
You know, I went to a schoolthat also broke that down to me
(15:44):
early.
And then you have another setof people who, when I just said,
it's as easy as typing intoGoogle what is a balanced meal.
You have people who can do that.
That's accessible For themajority of the others.
Food leaders, policymakers, havea responsibility at every
(16:06):
educational level to bring inthat chart to show the nutrition
wheel that you learn whenyou're a child.
Right, what you find is thatpeople assume in their
respective areas that this isnot important information, right
?
Some teaching colleges who arepreparing teachers don't talk
(16:27):
about nutrition at all.
Right, you have medical doctors.
I just saw this on the news theother day that what's his name,
the man who Trump appointed tobe health person is now going to
mandate that doctors knownutrition, Because doctors don't
know nutrition Right and so theinformation is available.
(16:49):
So that question that you askedme as who I am, I tell people
it's readily available.
We understand those who learnit early.
We understand those who, assoon as I say Google, is just
going to type in nutrition wheeland it comes up.
But we have a responsibility tothose who won't do any of that.
Policymakers, rules andregulations have to change to
(17:11):
make that information availableto them.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
All right.
So in the work you're doingwith Mission, Food Possible.
What has been the progresssince you've been doing this
work?
How have you seen progress andchanges being made in the
Caribbean Great?
Speaker 2 (17:31):
question Mission Food Possible started our work eight
years ago.
Right In our second year, weshifted our goal to train food
leaders in various communitiesacross the island.
And so, again, what it lookslike is we have a marquee
(17:52):
project.
Every year we identify the MVPsmost valuable produce in a
particular parish.
We go to a different parishevery year by the way, this year
we're scheduled to be in StElizabeth.
We identify a community in adifferent parish.
We identify a number of schoolsbasic schools, primary schools
(18:12):
and last year we did our firsthigh school.
So we're talking about roughly68 schools, a mixture of basic
school, primary schools and highschools and we are focused on
training the canteen staff ofthose schools.
That's our main focus.
Once we have all the canteenstaff of those schools that's
our main focus Once we have allthe canteen staff registered for
(18:34):
that workshop, we then turn tothe community and we invite
parents, we invite grandparents,food leaders, we invite
teachers into the workshop,right?
Why do we focus on children?
Because the perspective thatwe're trying we're trying to
shift perspective of theJamaican people on what healthy
food is, what does it mean tosee and think about food
(18:58):
differently?
Right, and so we know that wehave an opportunity with the
younger people to once they seesomething different, taste
something different, experiencesomething different that might
change them life completely.
Right, and so over the pasteight years we've been to seven
parishes.
Right, we've trained almost 25schools and we've directly
(19:25):
impacted the diets of almost60,000 people, mostly children
and food leaders of thecommunity.
So once we leave that school,our canteen workers are
empowered to not just cook withthe basic things that they're
used to, like the white rice andthe fried chicken and the curry
chicken.
Every day they are now thinkingoutside the box in preparing
(19:47):
various meals with breadfruitand ackee and callalalu and
potatoes and carrot and cassava.
These are all things that theyare now incorporating in cooking
creatively.
Once Mission Food Possible.
Leave their kitchen.
We have children who areshowing improvement in
attendance, children who areshowing improvement in learning
(20:09):
in attendance, children who areshown improvement in learning
right, and then that reverberateinto the communities the same
people who we train to cook thatway in the school.
Guess what happens?
They're going home to theirfamilies and cooking the same
exact way.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Yeah.
So you know I wanted to likedouble-clicking to something, so
you went to every parish.
So, growing up, my mother'sfather he's from St Mary and I
remember the first time I got toSt Mary.
I never eat so much bananaproducts in my life.
I eat everything banana right,which is fine, but it's
something that we learned as akid.
We know how to make bananafritters because we went to St
(20:43):
Mary because banana walk.
Now, going back to yourdefinition of food security, is
it like take, for instance, stMary, the product of the banana.
Is it about learning all thedifferent ways you can use
banana to make a food, or is itdiversifying banana with other
things?
But does that try to make itreally practical and easy to
(21:06):
understand where you're going?
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Love it.
We haven't been to St Mary's,so it's a great example.
After that, we know that, andwhen we say MVPs, you'll often
find that once we've identifiedwhat are the most important
foods to a region or a community, you'll find that some of those
foods are foods that we allgrew up knowing that this is
abundant in this particularplace.
(21:29):
So, absolutely, banana is anMVP of St Mary.
Jamaica is a disaster-proneplace.
We also occasionally havepolitical uprisings.
We have floods that might blockroadways, hurricane that will
block roadways and tear downcrops and ruined harvests.
(21:49):
Right, we have various thingsthat can affect food supply.
But even on a regular, regularthing, with no, with nothing
impacting food supply, knowingthat banana is important to St
Mary's is very, very, veryimportant.
Some people might not know thisright, and so the first level
did you know that banana isimportant to St Mary?
(22:11):
Why is this important?
If something ever happens, youknow that what's abundant in St
Mary is banana.
Cool, that's not enough ForMission Food Possible.
We bring our team of chefs inand our project look like this
Once we get the food leaders inone community, it's talking
(22:33):
about upbringing culture.
What does banana really mean tous?
Right, how long we know, bananais a part of our cultural
identity, right?
What do you know to do withbanana?
Okay, boil it, right, wait tillit ripe and then eat it.
So most people will have alimited knowledge of what to do
(22:54):
with the banana.
But what if, as chefs and weare trained to see food
differently?
What if we go in a communityand extend the knowledge of the
banana to the people?
What about a banana salad?
What about banana fritters?
What about banana porridge?
(23:15):
Right?
So if the people culturallyknow two and we add six, make
eight, and that starts toreverberate into the community,
we've just made that community alittle bit more food secure.
Practically, that's what itlooks like.
Does that make sense more?
Speaker 1 (23:29):
food secure.
Practically that's what itlooks like.
Does that make sense?
It does, and last week I did aninterview.
I recorded an interview with ayoung lady, magella, and she was
talking about the disaster inGrenada and her key point, which
kind of ties into what you aresaying, she was like you know,
people send barrel down all thetime and they have barrel with
canned corn.
(23:49):
She said why are we sendingbarrel with canned corn?
Why we don't give the farmerstheir money for plant corn so
they can stop by canned corn?
And I mean she said it and it'slike okay, but now you come
here and with this idea of foodsecurity completely makes sense.
And I think that what peoplethink about is like oh, you know
, we don't always have time togo out and get the regular corn.
(24:12):
Canned corn is easier in itsaccessibility or it's in
preparation.
What do you say to people whoare like, yeah, but the canned
food is right there, I don'thave time to go to a market or
go supermarket to buy thesethings.
What do you say to those peoplewho say, well, the canned corn
is easy, it's accessible andit's quick.
I would say to those people whosay, well, the CanCorn is easy,
it's accessible and it's quick.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
I would say to those people are you willing to
compromise your health right forconvenience, which is what
we're being asked to do andwe're being driven to do and
we're being coached into doingright?
I understand one-off, Iunderstand disaster preparedness
, I understand ease sometimes,but if we're making that our
(24:53):
norm, then we're losing vitalnutrients provided by the fresh
corn and absorbing sometimessodium, extra sodium and
preservatives that are in thecanned corn that we now know is
leading to cancer, right.
So I ask people what are wewilling to compromise In Mission
(25:13):
Food?
Possible workshop knife skillsis a vital part of it.
As chefs we're trained in knifeskills.
Knife skills make it easy toprep food, the most difficult
foods.
If you're taught a technique toprep the most difficult food,
you never look at that food thesame way again, right.
(25:34):
And so you look at corn andpeople go show me, can't bother
with the can, because all you'redoing the can will fly all over
the place and the can will dothis.
It's just easy for us to canand show it out.
Once I explain the risks ofregularly keyword, I mean I tell
nobody nothing, do what theymust do sometime.
But if I teach you how to takea corn on the cob right and
(25:55):
swipe that knife firmly butslowly down right.
You'll never look at the cornthe same way again.
It's not too far off thantaking a can open and working it
around the can right, and so Iwould ask those people if
they're willing to compromisetheir health, because sometimes
they don't know the dangers ofeating canned food regularly.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
All right, so we're going to step back even further.
What made you, or what calledyou, to be a chef?
What was that seed that wasplanted in you to choose this
route?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
I wasn't called to be a chef in Algeria.
That seed that was planted inyou to choose this route.
I wasn't called to be a chef inAlgeria.
I wasn't called to be a chef asa matter of fact.
One can argue that's not mypassion, right, and cooking is
(26:48):
not my passion, right.
It just so happens that whatI'm passionate about involves
food, right, and so I believeentrepreneurship is my calling
right.
It's what comes natural to me.
I've been given the gift ofideas and vision.
I was fortunate enough to havea vision of something that was
(27:14):
very different from the othervisions I've ever had, which is
may I pour you to always a dreamabout money.
You know, right, I want richand every idea I want jump on,
and I've created many businessesthat fail, I remember.
So I was, you know, profile acompany.
I'm coming from Jamaican TV.
You remember when FayeEllington Ian Bowen, right.
(27:35):
So I was supposed to be a gueston Ian Bowen program when Faye
Ellington took it over, I wasone of her first guests, right?
And so I tell Ms Ellington thatI've started maybe almost 20
business and fail miserably.
I've started maybe almost 20business and feel miserably just
trying to make something upmyself.
You know, may I get to you whenI'm rich, when it finally
(27:56):
turned for me, I guess, if youfeel enough time, you start to
learn.
I had an idea.
I went to Las Vegas.
I'll give you a quick summary.
I went to Las Vegas one day, soI was invited to a stage show
called Reggae in the Desert, andit was my first time seeing
mass consumption of my culture.
(28:16):
I never been to a stage showbefore that.
I never noticed that the worldreally loved reggae like that.
And so, as I'm walking aroundthe venue, I'm seeing people
selling food, and none of themwas Jamaicans.
So consumption of Jamaicanculture in all angles the music,
the food and I didn't see anyJamaicans at the forefront being
(28:41):
the suppliers, right.
And so I had this crazy ideathat how could I, as a Jamaican
who know my culture, have a hand, have a say-so, in how we're
disseminating our culture to theworld?
Right, and I sat on that.
I sat on it, and then thereggae chefs emerged.
(29:03):
What if, as some young youth,we can cook, we can go into some
people's living room and cooksome Jamaican food and talk to
them about Jamaica and educatethem about Jamaica.
And what does that look like?
So when the Reggae Chef startedto take form, nothing like it
existed.
As a matter of fact, thetourist minister called the
(29:24):
Reggae Chef one of the mostinnovative tourist-driven
businesses ever created in thelast 60 years.
So what it looked like was youcould go on our website or call
us.
Choose a chef, choose your dish, choose your entertainment, and
a chef will come out to yourspace, your place or wherever it
is that you are, and we willteach you how to cook the meal.
(29:44):
We will answer your questionsabout Jamaican, we will
entertain you, whether that bedance, art and craft, language
lessons you name it.
All right.
And so that was anentrepreneurial idea, not born
out of my passion for food, bornout of an opportunity.
I saw the Reggae chef startedto do its thing and I was hiring
(30:06):
chefs.
Once we started to grow, Istarted to hire chefs to you
know, to go out and do the thing, and they started to tease me
and say, oh yeah, I am a chef.
So I decided to go to culinaryschool to just get that out of
my back school, to just get thatalpha myovac Right.
I went to culinary school withthe eyes of an entrepreneur and
I think that really helped.
(30:27):
What happened to me?
Next, most students enterculinary school passionate about
food.
They can't wait to cook.
Right, when they see kitchen,that's all they think about.
They cook food.
But I went in already running acompany, but being in class as.
But I went in already running acompany, but being in class as
an entrepreneur, and two thingshappened at the same time.
(30:49):
I had a professor who wasexcited about the culinary field
, who told me that there's nobetter time to cook than now.
There's more people cookingthan ever before.
And I happened to go to theUnited Nations and heard about
the global hunger crisis.
And the two things did not makesense to me.
How is it that more people arecooking at the same time but yet
(31:12):
still there's more peoplehungry in the world?
So who the heck are we cookingfor?
And so I guess, because Iwasn't someone who was saying
I'm passionate about cooking, Ican't wait to go work in a
five-star restaurant.
I was someone who was therelearning to cook to see where
else my skills could fit in.
I decided to use my skills tocook for the people who matter
(31:35):
the most, the people who don'thave food to eat.
And so, to answer your question.
That is how I found thatconcept, and then I realized I
stumbled on something bigger,because the same people who I'm
looking at with my skills, I wasone of them.
I grew up like that, you know,and so I basically went with it
(31:58):
from there, and then the ideasjust kept flowing right.
I thought about how I could usemy culinary skills to feed the
people who need it the most, andhow could I do it innovatively,
not what everybody else wasdoing.
And that's when it dawned on methat, based on my travels, I
had done up to that point.
(32:18):
Most of the world eat in a verylimited way Rice, beans, corn,
mostly, right.
Jamaica's unique in that we eatabout a dozen staple foods
every single day, and so theinitial stages of my idea was
how do I let the world know howJamaicans eat and where else in
(32:38):
the world are these foods thatwe eat, so that we can transfer
the knowledge and the education?
Believe it or not, there'sthings that we eat that grow in
other places that people don'teven touch.
Like what?
Oh, that's easy.
When I started our work, Iremember going to a part of
Nicaragua that have okra andnobody could tell me what it was
(33:02):
.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Really, because you know listen nobody.
You know cook fish without okra.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
That's how we.
That's how we I remember on myfirst travels to West Africa
about 15, 16 years ago, and tothis day somewhat, because the
Jamaicans got there to teachpeople.
Nobody was consuming, aki.
You look surprised.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
I am extremely surprised.
Like every Jamaican, everyother Jamaican yard.
I mean, maybe everybody havebuilt up their house now, but
every Jamaican yard had, andevery other Jamaican yard had,
an ackee tree or a breadfruittree and as a child we
understood don't force the ackeeopen, poison us.
(33:55):
But you know, when the ackee,ready you go, you know for peel
it.
Like to me it's like that isjust basic Second nature.
Yeah, second nature, aki, readyyou go, you know for peeling.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Like to me it's like that is just basic Second nature
.
I'll blow your mind right now.
In case you don't know this,let me show you something.
Aki is our national dish Cool,it's a part of our national dish
.
A Jamaican not knowing aki islike it's impossible.
It is such a part of ourculture.
Jamaica is the largest exporterof Aki.
(34:24):
It's about a $4.5 millionbusiness annually Cool.
So not only we consume Aki asour national identity, but we're
also major providers of Akithat leave the country
Commercially right.
The biggest providers have theirown private orchards.
An orchard with about 93 or sois a relatively large orchard
(34:50):
Cool.
Some people will have more thanone right when it's harvesting
time.
What these ackee producers dois then they get the help of
locals who have tree in theirbackyard and they also use that
as surplus.
Cool.
I say that to give you contextIn West Africa worse back then,
(35:13):
but still very current.
I went to one school in Ghanaand I counted over a hundred
architrae used for shade, whichmeans on this one school
property.
It was an orchard larger thanour big orchards that we have
(35:34):
for commercial use, where wemake millions of dollars in
export.
All right, when you drivearound West Africa, ghana
especially right.
All you see is architry Again,may I say, about 16 years ago.
So we are talking about whatthey know now they never know.
Then I'm going to bring up tospeed to what is going on now.
Architry litter the terrain ofWest Africa because Aki is West
(35:58):
African in origin.
Okay, but when you go there,the Akan name for Aki is A-K-I,
so the spelling changed and thepronunciation changed, but in
the Akan language it'sA-C-H-I-N-G.
When you ask any West African16 years ago anybody and believe
me, I tried the A-C-H-I-N-Gtree is only planted for shade.
(36:21):
No one knew anything to do withit.
As a matter of fact, it was anuisance Because when the ackee
tree bear and drop on the groundand litter the ground, it was a
nuisance for them.
Them vex.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Yeah, because we know , if you met the ackee, drop it,
splatter it, mash outeverything.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
As Jamaicans started to go to Ghana more often, you
found pockets of people who'vebeen sharing that oh, this is
aki, we eat this aki, and thatstarted to proliferate.
So, to this day, nativeGhanaians don't consume aki.
Aki isn't a thing in Ghana, butbecause there are more
(37:01):
Jamaicans, you might find alittle corner where I utilize
the aki and you might find ahandful of Ghanaians who,
because of that knowledge, isconsuming it.
16 years ago this is how far Iwent I wondered if I could
reintroduce aki to the WestAfrican landscape, but we ended
(37:23):
up on a roadblock because youknow, aki is toxic, so it's
something that you have to bevery, very careful if you're
going to introduce a largepopulation to it.
So I'm happy that what's beenhappening now is still they
still don't consume Aki on alarge scale.
But because more and moreJamaicans are going, jamaicans
(37:43):
are recognizing that oh, shoot,we can't run out of aki yasso,
because a yasso is the root anda yasso comes from, and so
that's one example.
There are things that we eat andvice versa, that we don't know
what the other is doing.
And to boast our food security,if we knew that that's what
they were doing with planting,and we could add that to our
(38:04):
knowledge base over here andthen teach them another thing
that we know over here Dachshundis another one.
Right, you know Dachshund?
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
It's out.
Central America call it Taro,Other places call it Malaga.
West Africa call it Kokoyam andwe call it Do.
Other places call it malaga,West Africa call it koko yam and
we call it dasheen.
Nobody don't know what the nextone I call it.
So we are in different regionsconsuming the same food right.
The leaf is used in Kalaloo inTrinidad, the stem is curried in
(38:38):
the Philippines right and theroot is consumed by Caribbean
people and West African people.
So Caribbean people don't knowthat the stem can't eat and
Philippine people don't knowthat the leaf can't eat.
So what I'm saying is thatthere are exceptions to the rule
, you know.
I mean I want a Philippineperson to listen to this and say
but we didn't know that.
What we are saying is thatwe've been to those parts and
(39:00):
now say the public is notgeneral knowledge that the stem
can't eat in some parts of theworld and it's not general
knowledge that the leaf can'teat in some part of the world.
As a matter of fact, we use theleaf in something called pepper
pot soup.
We don't use it like whatTrinidad use it in their Kalalo
(39:20):
dish, you understand.
So when all of this become oneknowledge by people.
We bolster our food securitythrough education.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Wow, there is something else that you just
said too, that kind of remindedme of the conversation with
Majela.
She was, you know, she's fromGrenada, and she was talking
about how Grenada is the largestexporter of nutmeg but there's
no robust infrastructure formanufacturing of nutmeg products
, you know, and she was talkingabout that like that's something
that should change.
(39:53):
I love when everything comestogether, because she talked
about it and it was just like,okay, yeah, that makes sense,
that makes sense, but you noware, you know, explaining that.
You know food security also.
Part of this also is owning the.
You know the planting,manufacturing and the multiple
use cases of a crop you knowthat we have.
(40:14):
So this is incredible.
So, all right, as you wrap up,how can people support your work
, the work that you're doingwith Mission Food Possible?
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Mission Food Possible is the leading grassroots food
security organization in Jamaica.
I say that to say for us tohave been around for almost
eight years.
It speaks to our integrity andour commitment to the people.
Right, when we think about whatis the most important, what is
(40:53):
most important to people.
Food is right up there andwe're doing the work.
We could do a lot more with thehelp of the people.
People want to assist usMissionfoodpossiblecom.
They can find us at missionunderscore food underscore
possible on social mediaplatforms.
(41:13):
Shoot us a message.
They can email us at info atmissionfoodpossiblecom.
There are links there to donateto help us.
But helping us it's not justmoney.
We didn't choose this, it choseus, and so the more people that
are aware that this is ascourge is great for the people
(41:36):
that run Mission Food PossibleRight, and being that I never
planned to go into activism orgo into charity work, it's
something that you realize thatis a business.
For us.
It's not a business.
We don't want it to be abusiness.
We want this issue to end, andwe want it to end tomorrow.
(41:58):
So really and truly.
Equally important to us is ifyou hit us up and find out
exactly what is food insecurityand what can we do about it?
Our next training supposed tobe coming up in October.
Every year we're activeespecially around World Food Day
, which is October 16th, rightand so, and then right through
(42:21):
the year year we're doingvarious programmings and stuff
like that.
So just look out for missionfood possible, ask the questions
.
We're here to be resources forpeople and if you can help us,
if you can donate all the linksare on our website or just shoot
me a message on social media um, and people can find me at
peter ivy official as wellwonderful, peter.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
thank you so much.
I feel the passion, I feel thecommitment coming through.
I'm very excited.
You already know you're part ofthe Carry, our Friends
community.
Mikey T, big up yourself allthe time and, as I love to say
at the end of every episode walkgood.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Thank you very much and thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
You're welcome.
You're welcome.
Hello everybody, Welcome back to another episode
of Carry On Friends theCaribbean American Experience,
and my guest this episode isnone other than Peter Ivey.
Peter, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Yeah, I'm carrying on .
Thank you for having me, gladto be here.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
I'm glad you're here because in the pre-chat we get a
window where you're going tobring.
So I'm excited for thecommunity to hear.
But before we get there, tellthe community a little bit about
yourself.
I already know where you comefrom because we already speak
the language, but tell them alittle bit about you.
Know where you're from, thework you do.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
All right, carrying on is a task.
That's the way I'm going to try.
Born and raised Jamaican, comefrom Spanish town, attended
Jamaica College.
Migrated from Jamaica, livingin New York for a while, I'm
known as an entrepreneur serialentrepreneur, if you will.
I'm also a food securityactivist.
(01:00):
I'm the founder of Mission FoodPossible and the founder and
CEO of the Reggae Chefs and P3Culinary Kit.
P3 Culinary Kit is the world'sfirst culinary supplies and
uniforms founded for sociallyresponsible chefs.
Right, I'm also an author.
I published two children'sbooks.
The last children's book,dashin Island, was selected by
(01:24):
the government of Jamaica to bedistributed to primary
school-aged children.
All right, I'm also a speaker.
I spend time speaking onvarious platforms around the
world on food activism andentrepreneurship and anywhere I
can fit in.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Basically, Wonderful, so let's start at the beginning
.
What does it mean to be a foodsecurity activist?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Great question.
I believe that there's adisparity between where healthy
food, affordable food, safe food, nutritious food is distributed
, and I decided to do somethingabout it.
Right and so, literally as theword says, I activate my own
(02:08):
resources to ensure that we canbalance the scale a little bit.
I also agitate the powers thatbe to ensure that we can get
policies changed.
We can raise awareness aroundthese issues.
Hunger and food security is thenumber two problem in the world
, as per the United Nations.
Right and so, when we talkabout an issue so big and we
(02:30):
look at Jamaica being one of thetop countries in the Caribbean,
two-thirds of Jamaicanpopulation is food insecure
right, and so somebody have tosay something about it, somebody
have to do something about it,somebody have to make sure that
the people are not aware thatthis is a crisis.
They know that this is a crisis, and so I agitate and educate
(02:53):
and raise awareness.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
All right, we're going to go back even more to
the basic.
What does it mean or what doesit look like to be food insecure
?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Another great question, Kerri.
It's a rule, man.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
That's bringing it, we bring it.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah.
So I like to tell people thatyou know I didn't choose food
security.
You know it kind of chose mebecause when I got enlightened I
realized that I probably wasfood insecure my whole entire
life, growing up in Spanish Town, jamaica, passing for GSC, and
then my mother had to strugglefor fine school fee and then
(03:32):
sometime we didn't even have thelunch money and everything For
me.
Food security can even bedeadlier for the population than
straight out hunger andstarvation, because that you can
see.
Food insecurity you can't seeright.
And so imagine children first ofall going to school hungry
(03:53):
without breakfast, right.
Having to skip meals or skipschool because their parents
can't afford food to eat.
Imagine people who aremalnourished because they're
only eating canned food dailybecause it's the only thing they
can afford and so they arelacking the vital nutrients that
they need.
Right.
Imagine the stress of workingpeople who can only afford to
(04:18):
pay rent but can't afford thesupermarket run.
Right.
Imagine households that cannotsurvive on one paycheck if only
one paycheck coming in and sopeople have to kind of divvy up
who gets to go to school today,who get to have lunch today,
what are we having for dinnertoday?
Right, that's what foodsecurity look like.
Food security also is evidentin our hospitals when you look
(04:41):
at our diabetes rate, when youlook at our hypertension rate,
when you look at all of thosediseases caused by not eating
proper food, not having accessto healthy food, not eating
enough food right.
So many of our children arebeing diagnosed with issues that
could be solved by breakfast.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
That's what it looked like.
You're saying so many things.
The questions keep comingbecause you say healthy food
we're in America.
You know, like everybody,definition of a healthy food is
a moving target every time.
You know.
You know things that we grew up, you know.
You know, pick the latest trend, jackfruit.
We grew up with Walipajackfruit.
(05:21):
So, like, who really defineswhat's healthy food anymore?
Because it feels like what'sdefined as healthy food is based
on the latest trend and so forpeople who don't have the means,
as you describe it, foodsecurity you know what does that
(05:42):
look like for them?
And it could look like peoplelike me because, as you're
saying, mr Well, I don't know.
So that's why I'm like this isbeyond enlightening at this
point.
So just let's define what'shealthy and nutritious.
You know, beyond trends, fadand you know, let's be real you
(06:05):
know interest in driving aparticular product in the
marketplace for consumption.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Wonderful question.
I think it's a great time tohighlight that our work, mission
Food Possible.
Most of our work takes place inthe Caribbean.
Most of our work takes place inJamaica, caribbean.
Most of our work takes place inJamaica.
I spend time speaking inAmerica and doing workshops in
America.
But the reason why I mentionedthat distinction is because food
(06:33):
access looks very differentwhere you are located, piece,
but it's great to touch on that.
We know what a balanced meallooks like for every age group,
right?
We know what nutrients we'resupposed to be receiving and
(06:54):
where those nutrients should becoming from.
Now, when you live in a placelike America, you are literally
bound to the commercials orwhat's being advertised or
what's being promoted in thesupermarket, and that may or may
not be exactly what's good forus.
And we know a little bitcontroversial here, kerian, we
know that a lot of the food thatis being driven in a place like
America is capitalism.
It's money driven, it's notfocused on health, right.
(07:16):
But let's shift to Jamaica andI love the Caribbean because a
lot of our people have a lot ofautonomy about what they eat.
But they lot of autonomy aboutwhat they eat, but they just
don't know what to eat.
We've been not only misled butbombarded with the big food
companies with canned food.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Sometimes the same food that they sell in the can
growing in your backyard.
Listen, all of a sudden youknow there was a product I'm not
going to say you know that Isee they sell it in Canada.
And I said, but I remember,going to the back of the yard I
picked the gungo peas fingerblack up, avoid the worm.
You know all of that.
And now it's in a can, you know.
Or even the mint, like the mintbush grow wild at the side of
(08:03):
the house.
I forgot to pick it and boil it.
Every morning over now a teabag,and those are the things that I
miss growing up.
Trust me, Peter, like everymorning before I'm planting my
egg, we're going to get my minttea before I go to school.
And, as I say, the gungo peasmemory and the black finger,
(08:24):
when you pick the gungo peas,like those were things that I I
grew up the breadfruit, the aki,whatever on the tree to to see
what I, when I go back toJamaica, sometimes it feels like
it's so I don't want to sayAmericanized, but that's the
word Miguel used right nowversus what I remember growing
up and experiencing life in theCaribbean, so that's really
(08:47):
resonating with me.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Absolutely, and you just said something important.
I don't want to lose myprevious thought, though In many
ways, for our people to becomeAmericanized is to be on the
path to food insecurity.
Let me say it again, kerian Inmany ways, for our people to
become Americanized in the waywe eat, we're putting ourselves
(09:13):
on a path to be food insecure,and I'll get to that right after
.
And so we talk about proportion.
You just mentioned plantingyour carbs, you mentioned eggs,
your protein, and you need yourveggies, and so when we talk
about people having access tothe food, some people have an
access, especially people inrural areas, but don't know what
(09:34):
to eat, and so it's easy topick a mango and tear that mango
with your teeth, and then youeat six mango on your belly full
and you got your bed.
What I'm finding now is thatpeople actually don't want to
peel yam no more.
People don't want to peelbanana no more.
It's too much work.
You give me a look of confusion, but the generation is looking
(09:56):
at these foods as difficult food.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
You know what.
The other day I was talking tosomebody and you know, sometimes
when you peel the banana, youknow you split it, you put it in
a pot and boil and open it.
But then someone was I wasputting banana in soup, because
sometimes me like banana in soupand they say how you peel the
banana.
Me say, well, you know, no,hold on, used to teach you for
peeling banana.
You hold it down in other waterand that's how you peel it so
(10:20):
it make it easier for come off.
Yes, your finger might still,might still black up, but it's
part of the experience and Irealized that things that I knew
growing up and I was telling mymom I said the one thing I wish
I knew was to identify when abreadfruit turn and and I
already ferocious versus the oneway I can put in a soup.
That's the only thing that Idon't remember having the skill
(10:41):
for.
But knowing that skill is lostwith the elders because it is a
skill for know which breadfruitis which and you know what's
ready for a type of, the type ofcooking it desires, whether you
want to roast it or whether youwant to peel it and cook it in
a you know one pot with dumplingand banana, or put it in a soup
, so miss it?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yes, absolutely.
So everything we are saying andyou're touching on so many
different aspects of MissionFood Possible?
First, you touched on thispolitical aspect.
What role does policy play infood security?
What you just touched on iscustoms and culture.
Now, our elders, who had thatknowledge that you just spoke?
(11:24):
The knowledge can't tell when abreadfruit is in its various
stages of consumption.
If we're losing that knowledge,our people is losing something
vital to our nutrition and ourcultural identity.
Cultural identity isn'tstrictly linked to culinary
identity.
So all of those things are partof food security.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Man.
I love it because a huge partof what I talk about the show is
about preservation and ourcultural identity.
Like you know, like I wastelling somebody the other day
that I don't have a rice cookerand I said I don't want to lose
this skill on about knowing howto cook rice, literally just put
the rice in the pot, no muchwater and watching the pot and I
(12:09):
get it.
A rice cooker is convenient,but there's a fundamental skill
that you lose by not knowing howto cook rice, the way, how we
grew up.
Knowing how to cook the riceabsolutely I'm with you, peter.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
I'm with you, I like it you just touch on another
pillar without even knowing it.
So we didn't even get intomission food possible yet, but
you're just on another pillarwithout even knowing it.
See, we didn't even get intoMission Food Possible yet, but
you're just touching anotherpillar.
You're just moving through thepillars.
We have three pillars rightEmpower, educate and sustain.
Mission Food Possible is rootedin exactly what you just said,
that education piece.
As chefs, what Mission FoodPossible do is that we identify
(12:47):
what we call MVPs.
We have a tool that we use toidentify what are the most
important crops and foods to ourcommunity.
Once you've identified them, wecall them the MVPs.
We bring chefs into thatcommunity and train food leaders
.
So we're talking about parents,canteen workers, anybody who's
responsible for cooking food inour communities.
We train them how to cook avariety of things creatively and
(13:10):
inexpensively with their MVPs,and so we are retaining cooking
skills in our community andwhere it's being diluted, we are
reminding the people that thisis how you get fresh food by
picking it fresh, harvestingfresh, and if you have forgotten
the skill needed, this is howyou do it.
(13:30):
So you just touch on one of thepillars.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Wow, um, all right, so where we go from here?
Because it's just like to methis is.
It's really resonating, becausesometimes people feel like I
live in a you know, a yesteryearrose colored lens.
But it's not.
You know, I lost my grandmotherso I will never hear her
teaching me how to identify thebreadfruit, but I do remember
(13:57):
how.
For me, coconut drops full ofsugar, yes, but I know how to
make it like.
I can visually see her makingit Like.
You know, I was telling mybrother who was teaching his
wife how to make the rum cakeand I said you know why they
soak the rum, the raisins?
Because, you know, in Jamaicawe have, you know, jump pan.
(14:17):
You know our guests run out sothey had to soak it.
You know, now you can do nowwith, maybe, access and modern
technology and what things thatwe can retain in the process.
So in all of the things thatyou are doing, all your pillars,
(14:39):
you know you've identified that.
You know the how-to is missingthe education.
Now, you and I I don't knowabout you, but I went to an
all-girls school in Moby and upuntil ninth grade, I know I had
one session of food andnutrition class every week and
we had to learn about enzymes,this and that.
(15:01):
So you and I know not everybodyfortunate to have that kind of
structured learning about lipids, all of these things and what
have you.
So how do people then identifya balanced meal?
You know, because some peoplemay not know what's a balanced
meal.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So that resource is online.
For those who have access to it, it's the easiest information
to have access to.
And so I'm a realistic person,Karen.
Right, For those who haveaccess to it, it's the easiest
information to have access to.
And so I'm a realistic person,Karen.
Right.
For those who have theopportunity to have that
information being right in theirface, provide it to them.
That's fine.
You know, I went to a schoolthat also broke that down to me
(15:44):
early.
And then you have another setof people who, when I just said,
it's as easy as typing intoGoogle what is a balanced meal.
You have people who can do that.
That's accessible For themajority of the others.
Food leaders, policymakers, havea responsibility at every
(16:06):
educational level to bring inthat chart to show the nutrition
wheel that you learn whenyou're a child.
Right, what you find is thatpeople assume in their
respective areas that this isnot important information, right
?
Some teaching colleges who arepreparing teachers don't talk
(16:27):
about nutrition at all.
Right, you have medical doctors.
I just saw this on the news theother day that what's his name,
the man who Trump appointed tobe health person is now going to
mandate that doctors knownutrition, Because doctors don't
know nutrition Right and so theinformation is available.
(16:49):
So that question that you askedme as who I am, I tell people
it's readily available.
We understand those who learnit early.
We understand those who, assoon as I say Google, is just
going to type in nutrition wheeland it comes up.
But we have a responsibility tothose who won't do any of that.
Policymakers, rules andregulations have to change to
(17:11):
make that information availableto them.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
All right.
So in the work you're doingwith Mission, Food Possible.
What has been the progresssince you've been doing this
work?
How have you seen progress andchanges being made in the
Caribbean Great?
Speaker 2 (17:31):
question Mission Food Possible started our work eight
years ago.
Right In our second year, weshifted our goal to train food
leaders in various communitiesacross the island.
And so, again, what it lookslike is we have a marquee
(17:52):
project.
Every year we identify the MVPsmost valuable produce in a
particular parish.
We go to a different parishevery year by the way, this year
we're scheduled to be in StElizabeth.
We identify a community in adifferent parish.
We identify a number of schoolsbasic schools, primary schools
(18:12):
and last year we did our firsthigh school.
So we're talking about roughly68 schools, a mixture of basic
school, primary schools and highschools and we are focused on
training the canteen staff ofthose schools.
That's our main focus.
Once we have all the canteenstaff of those schools that's
our main focus Once we have allthe canteen staff registered for
(18:34):
that workshop, we then turn tothe community and we invite
parents, we invite grandparents,food leaders, we invite
teachers into the workshop,right?
Why do we focus on children?
Because the perspective thatwe're trying we're trying to
shift perspective of theJamaican people on what healthy
food is, what does it mean tosee and think about food
(18:58):
differently?
Right, and so we know that wehave an opportunity with the
younger people to once they seesomething different, taste
something different, experiencesomething different that might
change them life completely.
Right, and so over the pasteight years we've been to seven
parishes.
Right, we've trained almost 25schools and we've directly
(19:25):
impacted the diets of almost60,000 people, mostly children
and food leaders of thecommunity.
So once we leave that school,our canteen workers are
empowered to not just cook withthe basic things that they're
used to, like the white rice andthe fried chicken and the curry
chicken.
Every day they are now thinkingoutside the box in preparing
(19:47):
various meals with breadfruitand ackee and callalalu and
potatoes and carrot and cassava.
These are all things that theyare now incorporating in cooking
creatively.
Once Mission Food Possible.
Leave their kitchen.
We have children who areshowing improvement in
attendance, children who areshowing improvement in learning
(20:09):
in attendance, children who areshown improvement in learning
right, and then that reverberateinto the communities the same
people who we train to cook thatway in the school.
Guess what happens?
They're going home to theirfamilies and cooking the same
exact way.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Yeah.
So you know I wanted to likedouble-clicking to something, so
you went to every parish.
So, growing up, my mother'sfather he's from St Mary and I
remember the first time I got toSt Mary.
I never eat so much bananaproducts in my life.
I eat everything banana right,which is fine, but it's
something that we learned as akid.
We know how to make bananafritters because we went to St
(20:43):
Mary because banana walk.
Now, going back to yourdefinition of food security, is
it like take, for instance, stMary, the product of the banana.
Is it about learning all thedifferent ways you can use
banana to make a food, or is itdiversifying banana with other
things?
But does that try to make itreally practical and easy to
(21:06):
understand where you're going?
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Love it.
We haven't been to St Mary's,so it's a great example.
After that, we know that, andwhen we say MVPs, you'll often
find that once we've identifiedwhat are the most important
foods to a region or a community, you'll find that some of those
foods are foods that we allgrew up knowing that this is
abundant in this particularplace.
(21:29):
So, absolutely, banana is anMVP of St Mary.
Jamaica is a disaster-proneplace.
We also occasionally havepolitical uprisings.
We have floods that might blockroadways, hurricane that will
block roadways and tear downcrops and ruined harvests.
(21:49):
Right, we have various thingsthat can affect food supply.
But even on a regular, regularthing, with no, with nothing
impacting food supply, knowingthat banana is important to St
Mary's is very, very, veryimportant.
Some people might not know thisright, and so the first level
did you know that banana isimportant to St Mary?
(22:11):
Why is this important?
If something ever happens, youknow that what's abundant in St
Mary is banana.
Cool, that's not enough ForMission Food Possible.
We bring our team of chefs inand our project look like this
Once we get the food leaders inone community, it's talking
(22:33):
about upbringing culture.
What does banana really mean tous?
Right, how long we know, bananais a part of our cultural
identity, right?
What do you know to do withbanana?
Okay, boil it, right, wait tillit ripe and then eat it.
So most people will have alimited knowledge of what to do
(22:54):
with the banana.
But what if, as chefs and weare trained to see food
differently?
What if we go in a communityand extend the knowledge of the
banana to the people?
What about a banana salad?
What about banana fritters?
What about banana porridge?
(23:15):
Right?
So if the people culturallyknow two and we add six, make
eight, and that starts toreverberate into the community,
we've just made that community alittle bit more food secure.
Practically, that's what itlooks like.
Does that make sense more?
Speaker 1 (23:29):
food secure.
Practically that's what itlooks like.
Does that make sense?
It does, and last week I did aninterview.
I recorded an interview with ayoung lady, magella, and she was
talking about the disaster inGrenada and her key point, which
kind of ties into what you aresaying, she was like you know,
people send barrel down all thetime and they have barrel with
canned corn.
(23:49):
She said why are we sendingbarrel with canned corn?
Why we don't give the farmerstheir money for plant corn so
they can stop by canned corn?
And I mean she said it and it'slike okay, but now you come
here and with this idea of foodsecurity completely makes sense.
And I think that what peoplethink about is like oh, you know
, we don't always have time togo out and get the regular corn.
(24:12):
Canned corn is easier in itsaccessibility or it's in
preparation.
What do you say to people whoare like, yeah, but the canned
food is right there, I don'thave time to go to a market or
go supermarket to buy thesethings.
What do you say to those peoplewho say, well, the canned corn
is easy, it's accessible andit's quick.
I would say to those people whosay, well, the CanCorn is easy,
it's accessible and it's quick.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
I would say to those people are you willing to
compromise your health right forconvenience, which is what
we're being asked to do andwe're being driven to do and
we're being coached into doingright?
I understand one-off, Iunderstand disaster preparedness
, I understand ease sometimes,but if we're making that our
(24:53):
norm, then we're losing vitalnutrients provided by the fresh
corn and absorbing sometimessodium, extra sodium and
preservatives that are in thecanned corn that we now know is
leading to cancer, right.
So I ask people what are wewilling to compromise In Mission
(25:13):
Food?
Possible workshop knife skillsis a vital part of it.
As chefs we're trained in knifeskills.
Knife skills make it easy toprep food, the most difficult
foods.
If you're taught a technique toprep the most difficult food,
you never look at that food thesame way again, right.
(25:34):
And so you look at corn andpeople go show me, can't bother
with the can, because all you'redoing the can will fly all over
the place and the can will dothis.
It's just easy for us to canand show it out.
Once I explain the risks ofregularly keyword, I mean I tell
nobody nothing, do what theymust do sometime.
But if I teach you how to takea corn on the cob right and
(25:55):
swipe that knife firmly butslowly down right.
You'll never look at the cornthe same way again.
It's not too far off thantaking a can open and working it
around the can right, and so Iwould ask those people if
they're willing to compromisetheir health, because sometimes
they don't know the dangers ofeating canned food regularly.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
All right, so we're going to step back even further.
What made you, or what calledyou, to be a chef?
What was that seed that wasplanted in you to choose this
route?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
I wasn't called to be a chef in Algeria.
That seed that was planted inyou to choose this route.
I wasn't called to be a chef inAlgeria.
I wasn't called to be a chef asa matter of fact.
One can argue that's not mypassion, right, and cooking is
(26:48):
not my passion, right.
It just so happens that whatI'm passionate about involves
food, right, and so I believeentrepreneurship is my calling
right.
It's what comes natural to me.
I've been given the gift ofideas and vision.
I was fortunate enough to havea vision of something that was
(27:14):
very different from the othervisions I've ever had, which is
may I pour you to always a dreamabout money.
You know, right, I want richand every idea I want jump on,
and I've created many businessesthat fail, I remember.
So I was, you know, profile acompany.
I'm coming from Jamaican TV.
You remember when FayeEllington Ian Bowen, right.
(27:35):
So I was supposed to be a gueston Ian Bowen program when Faye
Ellington took it over, I wasone of her first guests, right?
And so I tell Ms Ellington thatI've started maybe almost 20
business and fail miserably.
I've started maybe almost 20business and feel miserably just
trying to make something upmyself.
You know, may I get to you whenI'm rich, when it finally
(27:56):
turned for me, I guess, if youfeel enough time, you start to
learn.
I had an idea.
I went to Las Vegas.
I'll give you a quick summary.
I went to Las Vegas one day, soI was invited to a stage show
called Reggae in the Desert, andit was my first time seeing
mass consumption of my culture.
(28:16):
I never been to a stage showbefore that.
I never noticed that the worldreally loved reggae like that.
And so, as I'm walking aroundthe venue, I'm seeing people
selling food, and none of themwas Jamaicans.
So consumption of Jamaicanculture in all angles the music,
the food and I didn't see anyJamaicans at the forefront being
(28:41):
the suppliers, right.
And so I had this crazy ideathat how could I, as a Jamaican
who know my culture, have a hand, have a say-so, in how we're
disseminating our culture to theworld?
Right, and I sat on that.
I sat on it, and then thereggae chefs emerged.
(29:03):
What if, as some young youth,we can cook, we can go into some
people's living room and cooksome Jamaican food and talk to
them about Jamaica and educatethem about Jamaica.
And what does that look like?
So when the Reggae Chef startedto take form, nothing like it
existed.
As a matter of fact, thetourist minister called the
(29:24):
Reggae Chef one of the mostinnovative tourist-driven
businesses ever created in thelast 60 years.
So what it looked like was youcould go on our website or call
us.
Choose a chef, choose your dish, choose your entertainment, and
a chef will come out to yourspace, your place or wherever it
is that you are, and we willteach you how to cook the meal.
(29:44):
We will answer your questionsabout Jamaican, we will
entertain you, whether that bedance, art and craft, language
lessons you name it.
All right.
And so that was anentrepreneurial idea, not born
out of my passion for food, bornout of an opportunity.
I saw the Reggae chef startedto do its thing and I was hiring
(30:06):
chefs.
Once we started to grow, Istarted to hire chefs to you
know, to go out and do the thing, and they started to tease me
and say, oh yeah, I am a chef.
So I decided to go to culinaryschool to just get that out of
my back school, to just get thatalpha myovac Right.
I went to culinary school withthe eyes of an entrepreneur and
I think that really helped.
(30:27):
What happened to me?
Next, most students enterculinary school passionate about
food.
They can't wait to cook.
Right, when they see kitchen,that's all they think about.
They cook food.
But I went in already running acompany, but being in class as.
But I went in already running acompany, but being in class as
an entrepreneur, and two thingshappened at the same time.
(30:49):
I had a professor who wasexcited about the culinary field
, who told me that there's nobetter time to cook than now.
There's more people cookingthan ever before.
And I happened to go to theUnited Nations and heard about
the global hunger crisis.
And the two things did not makesense to me.
How is it that more people arecooking at the same time but yet
(31:12):
still there's more peoplehungry in the world?
So who the heck are we cookingfor?
And so I guess, because Iwasn't someone who was saying
I'm passionate about cooking, Ican't wait to go work in a
five-star restaurant.
I was someone who was therelearning to cook to see where
else my skills could fit in.
I decided to use my skills tocook for the people who matter
(31:35):
the most, the people who don'thave food to eat.
And so, to answer your question.
That is how I found thatconcept, and then I realized I
stumbled on something bigger,because the same people who I'm
looking at with my skills, I wasone of them.
I grew up like that, you know,and so I basically went with it
(31:58):
from there, and then the ideasjust kept flowing right.
I thought about how I could usemy culinary skills to feed the
people who need it the most, andhow could I do it innovatively,
not what everybody else wasdoing.
And that's when it dawned on methat, based on my travels, I
had done up to that point.
(32:18):
Most of the world eat in a verylimited way Rice, beans, corn,
mostly, right.
Jamaica's unique in that we eatabout a dozen staple foods
every single day, and so theinitial stages of my idea was
how do I let the world know howJamaicans eat and where else in
(32:38):
the world are these foods thatwe eat, so that we can transfer
the knowledge and the education?
Believe it or not, there'sthings that we eat that grow in
other places that people don'teven touch.
Like what?
Oh, that's easy.
When I started our work, Iremember going to a part of
Nicaragua that have okra andnobody could tell me what it was
(33:02):
.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Really, because you know listen nobody.
You know cook fish without okra.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
That's how we.
That's how we I remember on myfirst travels to West Africa
about 15, 16 years ago, and tothis day somewhat, because the
Jamaicans got there to teachpeople.
Nobody was consuming, aki.
You look surprised.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
I am extremely surprised.
Like every Jamaican, everyother Jamaican yard.
I mean, maybe everybody havebuilt up their house now, but
every Jamaican yard had, andevery other Jamaican yard had,
an ackee tree or a breadfruittree and as a child we
understood don't force the ackeeopen, poison us.
(33:55):
But you know, when the ackee,ready you go, you know for peel
it.
Like to me it's like that isjust basic Second nature.
Yeah, second nature, aki, readyyou go, you know for peeling.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Like to me it's like that is just basic Second nature
.
I'll blow your mind right now.
In case you don't know this,let me show you something.
Aki is our national dish Cool,it's a part of our national dish
.
A Jamaican not knowing aki islike it's impossible.
It is such a part of ourculture.
Jamaica is the largest exporterof Aki.
(34:24):
It's about a $4.5 millionbusiness annually Cool.
So not only we consume Aki asour national identity, but we're
also major providers of Akithat leave the country
Commercially right.
The biggest providers have theirown private orchards.
An orchard with about 93 or sois a relatively large orchard
(34:50):
Cool.
Some people will have more thanone right when it's harvesting
time.
What these ackee producers dois then they get the help of
locals who have tree in theirbackyard and they also use that
as surplus.
Cool.
I say that to give you contextIn West Africa worse back then,
(35:13):
but still very current.
I went to one school in Ghanaand I counted over a hundred
architrae used for shade, whichmeans on this one school
property.
It was an orchard larger thanour big orchards that we have
(35:34):
for commercial use, where wemake millions of dollars in
export.
All right, when you drivearound West Africa, ghana
especially right.
All you see is architry Again,may I say, about 16 years ago.
So we are talking about whatthey know now they never know.
Then I'm going to bring up tospeed to what is going on now.
Architry litter the terrain ofWest Africa because Aki is West
(35:58):
African in origin.
Okay, but when you go there,the Akan name for Aki is A-K-I,
so the spelling changed and thepronunciation changed, but in
the Akan language it'sA-C-H-I-N-G.
When you ask any West African16 years ago anybody and believe
me, I tried the A-C-H-I-N-Gtree is only planted for shade.
(36:21):
No one knew anything to do withit.
As a matter of fact, it was anuisance Because when the ackee
tree bear and drop on the groundand litter the ground, it was a
nuisance for them.
Them vex.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Yeah, because we know , if you met the ackee, drop it,
splatter it, mash outeverything.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
As Jamaicans started to go to Ghana more often, you
found pockets of people who'vebeen sharing that oh, this is
aki, we eat this aki, and thatstarted to proliferate.
So, to this day, nativeGhanaians don't consume aki.
Aki isn't a thing in Ghana, butbecause there are more
(37:01):
Jamaicans, you might find alittle corner where I utilize
the aki and you might find ahandful of Ghanaians who,
because of that knowledge, isconsuming it.
16 years ago this is how far Iwent I wondered if I could
reintroduce aki to the WestAfrican landscape, but we ended
(37:23):
up on a roadblock because youknow, aki is toxic, so it's
something that you have to bevery, very careful if you're
going to introduce a largepopulation to it.
So I'm happy that what's beenhappening now is still they
still don't consume Aki on alarge scale.
But because more and moreJamaicans are going, jamaicans
(37:43):
are recognizing that oh, shoot,we can't run out of aki yasso,
because a yasso is the root anda yasso comes from, and so
that's one example.
There are things that we eat andvice versa, that we don't know
what the other is doing.
And to boast our food security,if we knew that that's what
they were doing with planting,and we could add that to our
(38:04):
knowledge base over here andthen teach them another thing
that we know over here Dachshundis another one.
Right, you know Dachshund?
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
It's out.
Central America call it Taro,Other places call it Malaga.
West Africa call it Kokoyam andwe call it Do.
Other places call it malaga,West Africa call it koko yam and
we call it dasheen.
Nobody don't know what the nextone I call it.
So we are in different regionsconsuming the same food right.
The leaf is used in Kalaloo inTrinidad, the stem is curried in
(38:38):
the Philippines right and theroot is consumed by Caribbean
people and West African people.
So Caribbean people don't knowthat the stem can't eat and
Philippine people don't knowthat the leaf can't eat.
So what I'm saying is thatthere are exceptions to the rule
, you know.
I mean I want a Philippineperson to listen to this and say
but we didn't know that.
What we are saying is thatwe've been to those parts and
(39:00):
now say the public is notgeneral knowledge that the stem
can't eat in some parts of theworld and it's not general
knowledge that the leaf can'teat in some part of the world.
As a matter of fact, we use theleaf in something called pepper
pot soup.
We don't use it like whatTrinidad use it in their Kalalo
(39:20):
dish, you understand.
So when all of this become oneknowledge by people.
We bolster our food securitythrough education.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Wow, there is something else that you just
said too, that kind of remindedme of the conversation with
Majela.
She was, you know, she's fromGrenada, and she was talking
about how Grenada is the largestexporter of nutmeg but there's
no robust infrastructure formanufacturing of nutmeg products
, you know, and she was talkingabout that like that's something
that should change.
(39:53):
I love when everything comestogether, because she talked
about it and it was just like,okay, yeah, that makes sense,
that makes sense, but you noware, you know, explaining that.
You know food security also.
Part of this also is owning the.
You know the planting,manufacturing and the multiple
use cases of a crop you knowthat we have.
(40:14):
So this is incredible.
So, all right, as you wrap up,how can people support your work
, the work that you're doingwith Mission Food Possible?
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Mission Food Possible is the leading grassroots food
security organization in Jamaica.
I say that to say for us tohave been around for almost
eight years.
It speaks to our integrity andour commitment to the people.
Right, when we think about whatis the most important, what is
(40:53):
most important to people.
Food is right up there andwe're doing the work.
We could do a lot more with thehelp of the people.
People want to assist usMissionfoodpossiblecom.
They can find us at missionunderscore food underscore
possible on social mediaplatforms.
(41:13):
Shoot us a message.
They can email us at info atmissionfoodpossiblecom.
There are links there to donateto help us.
But helping us it's not justmoney.
We didn't choose this, it choseus, and so the more people that
are aware that this is ascourge is great for the people
(41:36):
that run Mission Food PossibleRight, and being that I never
planned to go into activism orgo into charity work, it's
something that you realize thatis a business.
For us.
It's not a business.
We don't want it to be abusiness.
We want this issue to end, andwe want it to end tomorrow.
(41:58):
So really and truly.
Equally important to us is ifyou hit us up and find out
exactly what is food insecurityand what can we do about it?
Our next training supposed tobe coming up in October.
Every year we're activeespecially around World Food Day
, which is October 16th, rightand so, and then right through
(42:21):
the year year we're doingvarious programmings and stuff
like that.
So just look out for missionfood possible, ask the questions
.
We're here to be resources forpeople and if you can help us,
if you can donate all the linksare on our website or just shoot
me a message on social media um, and people can find me at
peter ivy official as wellwonderful, peter.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
thank you so much.
I feel the passion, I feel thecommitment coming through.
I'm very excited.
You already know you're part ofthe Carry, our Friends
community.
Mikey T, big up yourself allthe time and, as I love to say
at the end of every episode walkgood.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Thank you very much and thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
You're welcome.
You're welcome.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.