Jamaican chef Peter Ivey striving for variety in healthy eating
Published:Tuesday | October 25, 2022 | 12:08 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
INTRODUCING JAMAICAN children to healthier meal options through new and varied cooking techniques has become a major goal for chef and entrepreneur Peter Ivey, whose non-profit organisation, Mission: Food Possible (MFP), recently revived a campaign to teach school canteen operators how to prepare healthy dishes in different ways.
Ivey, 40, told The Gleaner that the goal of MFP, which he founded in 2017, is to promote food security by making extensive use of local food produce, supporting Jamaican farmers and showcasing healthier meal options than what the population usually consumes.
“When it comes to our high import bill, MFP promotes the support of farmers and of local indigenous foods. When it comes to health, we are saying that these foods are part of our culinary and cultural identity, and we need to change the mindset of our young people who are falling in love with this ‘fast food, fried food’ kind of mentality and straying away from the food we know is good for us,” said Ivey.
The MFP’s mission of healthy food promotion included an endeavour earlier in October to teach 25 school canteen cooks from five primary and all-age schools in Westmoreland how to use natural foods to prepare delicious meals.
A graduate of Jamaica College in Kingston and the Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, New York, Ivey explained that he was motivated to start his non-profit after learning about global food security statistics during a visit to the United Nations’ headquarters.
“I happened to go to the United Nations in New York City, and I learned that there is a global hunger crisis. This was while I was in school learning about cooking and being told that it was an exciting time to start cooking. But I found it a big contradiction that there are more people hungry than ever before while there are more people cooking than ever before,” said Ivey.
“The people learning to cook, who exactly are they cooking for? That contradiction changed my life forever. I had in the back of my mind that if I learned the skills of a chef, how can I use these skills to feed people who really need food to eat and who do not have it?” Ivey added.
Since then, the MFP founder has sought to apply that philosophy to Jamaica, which he notes has a wide variety of food items so that the country should not be faced with the risk of a food shortage.
Among the food items that MFP teaches locals how to use in different ways are the breadfruit, which can be used to make juice, porridge, pizza crust, fritters, and flour. Another is the dasheen, the root of which can be used to make chips, fritters, or juice and the stem of which can be curried.
“Being a chef and being Jamaican, I do not see a food shortage in Jamaica, and I do not know anybody who agrees that there is a food shortage. How can 2.3 million people be food insecure out of a population of three million? But food insecurity is a complex issue as sometimes it is not shortage of food that classifies a region as food insecure,” said Ivey.
“Sometimes it is the type of food or the quantity of food that is being eaten that classifies as food insecurity. When you look at Jamaica, you realise that Jamaica is bountiful and abundant, but one of the things that is an issue is empowerment, training, and understanding how to maximise the food we do have.”
Ivey recently pushed that mandate of healthy food promotion one step further with his publication of a new children’s book, Dasheen Island, which he hopes will teach children the value of eating healthy foods.
“The Ministry of Education looked at the book as appropriate reading material for children to learn about food security. We have a consumption pattern of our people that is pointing toward fast food. We have a high hypertension rate and a high diabetes rate, and we know that the only way to successfully change those patterns is to go to our young people first,” said Ivey.