A Quarterly Newsletter                                                                                    Spring 2016
Happy Spring from Oldways!
 
African Heritage & Health Week Sparks 
Healthy Eating All Year Long 


Our fifth annual African Heritage & Health Week (February 1-7) was celebrated in so many wonderful ways this year. A Taste of African Heritage teachers, Ambassadors and students, bloggers, journalists, and small business owners shared their love and wisdom of African heritage foods over the week by sharing photos, meals, and info bites across the web and in their hometowns.  

Oldways took the week to give an exclusive look at our Taste of African Heritage curriculum across our online channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+) using our new hashtag #EatAfricanHeritage365. 

You can read about the week fully here on the Oldways Common Table Blog. 
  A Taste of African Heritage Students in Cleveland Get an A+ On Homework! 






The students in Ambassador Angela Ledyard's A Taste of African Heritage class have been acing their homework and sharing their tradition-inspired cooking creations from home on Oldways' ATOAH Facebook and Cleveland Heights ATOAH pages for the last several weeks.  From kid-approved green smoothies to spice-infused vegetable medleys and quinoa breakfast porridges, these students get an A+ for culinary creativity, inspiring fellow students, and living what they are learning!  We celebrate all your kitchen achievements, Cleveland Heights ATOAH!  

If you would like to join us as an A Taste of African Heritage teacher, student or ambassador this year, please email Sade Anderson at sade@oldwayspt.org for more information.  

You can also sign up to be a teacher on our Teacher Sign Up Form. 

 

Oldways thanks The Walmart Foundation for making A Taste of African Heritage 
nationally possible

  Thank You Sunday Suppers and Philly Teachers!

In North Philadelphia, some families get together for Sunday dinner on Wednesday nights, thanks to a local organization called Sunday Suppers. Every week, Sunday Suppers offers a free cooking class and multi-course dinner for about 15 families, filling healthy plates for 20 adults and 40 kiddos. 

Once a season, Sunday Suppers brings in guest chefs and community cooks to introduce new recipes and cooking techniques to participating families. Last month, two of our local A Taste of African Heritage instructors, Khaliah Pitts and Claire Richardson, volunteered as guest chefs for an African Diaspora themed dinner.  

Their menu included several Oldways dishes, found in our ATOAH curriculum and Good For Me Cookbook, including:  
We are so thankful to Sunday Suppers for their invitation and to Khaliah and Claire for lending their time, talents and expertise! Stay tuned for more details about this exciting event and organization on next week's Oldways Table Blog. 
 

AHH Health Study: Leafy Greens Can Keep Your Brain Young

In each newsletter issue, we share one scientific study that reinforces the importance of the African Heritage Diet and eating more like the old ways. 
 

 
 
It is no secret that green vegetables are some of the healthiest foods for our bodies, but research shows that they are also good for our brains.  

Researchers in Chicago and Boston analyzed the eating patterns and cognitive abilities of over 950 older adults for an average of five years.  The scientists found a significant decrease in the rate of cognitive decline for people who ate more leafy green vegetables (like spinach, kale, collards, and mustard greens).  

In fact, people who ate just one to two servings of leafy greens per day had the cognitive ability of a person 11 years younger than those who ate none. 

You can read the whole study here at Science Daily 
and other African Heritage Health Studies at Oldways.  

African Heritage Dine-Around-Town
Oldways knows that one of the easiest ways to dine out healthfully is to choose cultural restaurants that serve traditional world cuisines. Whether African, Caribbean, Indian, or Japanese, cultural restaurants tend to offer the widest variety of vegetables, beans, whole grains, meats, and spices prepared in deliciously dynamic ways.

Every newsletter edition, we put the spotlight on three African heritage restaurants from our Dine-Around-Town list, describing the traditional features of their menus and cultural dish ideas to make at home. This season we are featuring restaurants serving cuisines of Liberia, a               country located on the West African Coast. 
  

Africanne On Main Lunch Buffet
Africanne On Main 
Richmond, VA
Founded by Chef Ida MaMusu, a native of Monrovia, Liberia, Mamusu's restaurant is a haven for fresh, all-natural ingredients daily. Chef Mamusu has been cooking and creating in the kitchen since she was just 8yrs old. She learned mainly from her grandmother and decided to turn her culinary passion into a career. Chef MaMusu's inspiring menu and lunch buffet highlight loads of veggies, fish cuisines, leafy greens, spicy chicken, jollof rice, plantains, black-eyed pea fritters, a jerk vegetable pie with a pineapple sauce, and more! 
 

Philadelphia, PA
Open 7 days a week with long hours from 10am-11pm, you're sure to be able to grab a bite at Le Mandinque any time your hungry in Philly! Dine in or carry-out, visitors rave about their jollof rice, fish, and cassava leaf. They serve a close relative to Oldways' West African Peanut Stew, a shredded cassava dish called acheke, plantains, goat, and chicken dishes as well. Modestly priced, the restaurant serves ample size portions, so you will most likely be able to take home leftovers. A neighborhood favorite, which makes it often busy, but they say its well worth the wait! 
 
Charlotte, NC
If you are looking for authentic Liberian food in Charlotee, Zoewee's is the mom and pop family-style restaurant for you. Those familiar with West African dishes such as jollof rice, pepper soup and fufu will find comfort in Zoewee's menu. They also serve potato greens cooked in red palm oil, other veggies such as okra, and a selection of poultry and fish dishes, marinated in spices or sauces, with accompaniments such as rice and plantains.  
 

Oldways African Heritage Recipes 
The most powerful call to action to improve the health of African American families and communities: Get cooking! To help families put the African Heritage Diet Pyramid on their plate, here are three delicious, healthy recipes that take their cues from African roots. 

Click on the title below to go to the Oldways recipe.


Mint, cumin and coriander give this dish its North African taste. You can vary the chopped vegetables to suit whatever you have on hand: celery, carrots, beets, chard stems, and peppers are all good--to name a few.    
 
Carrye Brown's Sweet Kale Salad 
This recipe comes to us courtesy of African Heritage & Health Ambassador Carrye Brown in Washington, DC.  Thank you, Carrye, for this sweet, garden-fresh recipe! 

Moroccan Carrot Salad 
This salad comes from Paula Wolfert's cookbook Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco, featuring carrots, cumin, paprika, garlic and fresh parsley.  
Contact
Sarah McMackin
Program Manager, African Heritage & Health

Sade Anderson
Program Coordinator & African Diaspora Specialist, African Heritage & Health 
sade@oldwayspt.org
Stay Connected
In honor of Women's History Month, marinate on these quotes from two women of the African Diaspora:

"'Get Healthy ... By Any Greens Necessary."  -- Chef Ahki


"'Service is the rent that you pay for room on this earth."  -- Shirley Chisholm