On a recent Saturday afternoon, chicken simmered on the stovetop as three Hispanic moms prepared a traditional meal.
But instead of cooking the chicken in butter, the ladies were trying a new recipe with coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil and vegetable oil.
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They used measuring cups to complete the recipe, which cut down on the heavy use of salt or traditional seasonings high in sodium. They also made guacamole, rice, chicken soup, salad and a fresh fruit salad with apples, blueberries, strawberries and more tropical fruits like papayas and mangoes.
The moms were learning the techniques as part of a program for their children through Proyecto RAICES, a long-standing program in Akron that has been serving Hispanic/Latin youths from ages 4 to 14 since 1998. The program meets on Saturdays for a hot meal and activities including cultural retention programs to keep up their Spanish reading and speaking skills, STEM lessons and arts and crafts.
Proyecto RAICES was one of three winners of $1,000 awards selected by a panel of Akron-area community judges as part of the Health Disparities Project by the Beacon Journal. The judges were looking for grassroots groups in the Akron area that are helping to solve racism as a public health issue.
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“For the Hispanic community in Akron, it’s about food and family and tradition,” said Rita Aggarwal, co-director of Proyecto RAICES, which stands for “Recognizing And Integrating Culture Education and Service.” Raices also means roots in Spanish.
For Hispanic families, big celebration gatherings center around food, Aggarwal said.
They don’t worry too much about reading nutrition labels or how they’re cooking, as long as it tastes good, she said. However, data shows obesity issues in this community in children and other health issues in adults, she said.
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The award helped fund virtual bilingual virtual nutrition and cooking lessons with two Northeast Ohio Medical University students who taught kids and parents in the program how to modify existing favorite foods with ingredients that are healthier, but still tasty.
“We use a lot of butter, a lot of salt,” said Nancy Auquilla, co-director of Proyecto RAICES. “We’re going to try to teach them to use less butter, less salt and do it the healthy way, just using garlic, onion and oil.”
It was important to the program to use ingredients that the families would normally eat, but with some healthy tweaks, Aggarwal said.
“If we said, ‘Why don’t you eat this whole wheat tortilla with brown rice and coconut oil,’ everybody will just go ‘Blah,’ and they’ll pitch it in the garbage can,” she said.
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The project purchased ingredients, including fresh papaya and mango for a fruit salad, from El Canelo, a local Mexican grocery store. It was important to the program to use the funds to support a local business in the community as well, Aggarwal said.
The Hispanic/Latino community in Summit County is a “minority within a minority,” said Aggarwal and Auquilla in their application for the award. Hispanics make up 2.3{c33c21346ff5e26ab8e0ae3d29ae4367143f0d27c235e34c392ea37decdb8bed} of the Summit County population.
Many in the community served by Proyecto RAICES are recent immigrants from Mexico, Central America and South America. Many work in the service industry, with little to no health benefits. Most do not speak English or need translation services. In a recent health system focus group, many said wait times for interpretation services when seeking care were unreasonably long and there was a lack of trust of the interpreters.
Teaching real-life lessons
Before the cooking session, NEOMED students Aviva Aguilar and Ashley Houston spoke to the children and their parents during a virtual lesson about nutrition and healthy eating. The lessons included breaking down a nutritional label, explaining good and bad fats and discussing where to look for levels of sodium and sugars.
As Aguilar spoke to the group in Spanish, she showed a slide explaining that it would take riding a bike for one hour and 42 minutes to burn off the 250 calories in a Happy Meal hamburger.
She also promised to talk next time about Goyo Adobo, a popular Latin all-seasoning spice.
“We will talk about how much sodium is in Adobo since we all have it in our house,” she said.
She and Houston also encouraged the youths to get on the Tik Tok app to take a picture or make a video of what they’d learned about nutrition labels.
The organization has been using Tik Tok, an app that’s popular with youths, to make COVID-19-related safety messages featuring local health partners to encourage young people to wear masks and social distance. (Search for @proyectoraices.) The organization also has been helping the Hispanic community find COVID-19 vaccination appointments through its Facebook page “MiProyectoRAICES.”
Cooking with healthier ingredients
In the kitchen of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Akron, Aggarwal encouraged the ladies to use measuring cups as they were prepping their meals and taking notes about the nutritional contents in the recipes.
Through Auquilla, who translated from Spanish, the moms said they were happy to be learning ways to cook their traditional meals in a healthier way.
Jesica de Alfaro, who came to Akron from El Salvador, expressed similar reasons to cook healthier for her husband and children.
“She wants to learn to cook healthy because all of the ingredients they put in has a lot of salt and a lot of things if they learn to cook healthy, she can cook especially for her husband, who needs to be taken care of,” Auquilla said.
Proyecto RAICES benefits
Proyecto RAICES is meeting virtually during the pandemic, but looks forward to returning to meeting in person on Saturdays with a hot meal, educational enrichment and “a place they can feel comfortable,” Aggarwal said.
“The Hispanic community is not a large community number wise in Akron. In school, they often don’t see other kids like them,” she said.
“The grant was so helpful to us because it allowed us to keep the cultural part of this. The food is still what people usually eat, but we just wanted to help them raise their awareness in terms of measuring, the calories, the sodium since we know those are health issues for the community.”
Latin Chicken & Rice
INGREDIENTS
8 skinless chicken thighs
2 tsp Goya Sazon, homemade or Badia Sazon Tropical (found in grocery or ethnic stores. If possible, look for light or low-sodium version)
About 1/2 tsp Goya Adobo powder (found in grocery or ethnic stores. If possible, look for light or low-sodium version)
About 1/2 tsp garlic powder
3 tsp coconut oil
1/2 onion
1/4 cup cilantro
3 cloves garlic
4 scallions
2 tbsp bell pepper
2 1/2 cups enriched long grain white rice
4 cups water
Kosher salt to taste, about 2 tsp
INSTRUCTIONS
Season chicken 1/2 tsp Sazon, Adobo and garlic powder and let it sit 10 minutes.
Heat a large deep heavy skillet on medium, add 2 tsp oil when hot.
Add chicken and brown 5 minutes on each side. Remove and set aside.
Place onion, cilantro, garlic, scallions and pepper in mini food processor. Add remaining teaspoon of coconut oil to the skillet and sauté onion mixture on medium-low until soft, about 3 minutes.
Add rice, and mix well and cook another minute.
Add water and remaining Sazon, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
Taste for salt, should taste salty enough to suit your taste, add more as needed.
Add chicken and place into the rice, bring to a boil. Simmer on medium-low until most of the water evaporates and you see the liquid bubbling at the top of the rice line, then put heat to low heat and cover. Make sure the lid has a good seal, no steam should escape (You could place a piece of tin foil or paper towel in between the lid and the pot if steam escapes).
Cook 20 minutes without opening the lid. Shut heat off and let it sit with the lid on an additional 10 minutes.
Beacon Journal staff reporter Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or [email protected]. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ. To see her most recent stories and columns, go to www.tinyurl.com/bettylinfisher.
