Hello, my name is Jose Andres Zavala. I live within O’ahu’s Neighborhood Board #8, McCully-Mōʻiliʻili. I am interested in food anthropology. A food anthropologist studies how food affects politics, human relationships, and the ways that people live and work. I am especially passionate about food research and/or nutrition and the meanings that food acquires within culture, as well as how food systems are intertwined with structures of power and economic inequality, national cuisines, and restaurant cultures. As part of my work with the Resilience Corps Leaders (RCLs), I will be helping build resilience within our communities by advancing nutritional literacy workshops and demonstrating cooking methods and tips to build a resilient pantry. I was a cook on the Olympic Champion, a commercial fishing vessel that sailed out of Florida and followed the Gulf Stream current to the deep ocean waters off the coast of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia.
At the onset of the COVID-19, I was also diagnosed with prediabetes. My doctor informed me that I was at high risk of contracting an unknown pandemic.I was fortunate to be enrolled as a culinary student at Kapi’olani Community College (KCC). Doom turned to hope. My experience and quality of life changed when I started applying the lessons learned. I presented a research paper as a final project for English 100:
“Strategies for Overcoming Metabolic Syndrome and Other Dietary Disease”
I felt totally supported by the University of Hawaii Community College (UHCC) system. I received auspicious, timely outreach of financial and mental health support during the lengthy and unreliable unemployment compensation gap and delays. As a result of applied learning and commitment, I successfully reversed my prediabetes and am enjoying a great sense of well-being. I started making my pantry more resilient by making smarter food choices based on science and nutrition. Preparing planned meal recipes from food items that are shelf stable and supplemented by food banks helped me overcome food supply shortages and disruptions. This seems like a reasonable thing to do if you live on the most remote land mass on the planet. Then another learning experience started taking shape when I attended a service learning orientation for the Kapi’olani Service and Sustainability Learning Program (KSSLP) presented by the KSSLP Program Coordinator, Denise Pierson. I found that a lot of my values resonated within the KSSLP core concept of meeting the needs having to do with the individual and collective well-being of the community where we live and work. I was offered student employment through the Pacific Islands: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and was hired as a Health Pathway Leader at KSSLP. I partnered with Hawaii Meals On Wheels (HMOW), delivering hot meals to home bound Kūpuna. And thus began my service learning experience and commitment. I followed up the fall semester by enrolling in Dr. Lauren Tamamoto’s Food and Nutrition Science (FSHE185). I took an interest by participating and volunteering for food distribution events managed by the Lunalillo Scholars Program staff and volunteers at KCC.
The last layer of this tremendous stack of learning experiences is being a recipient of the RCL award, being involved and engaged in service with the remarkable staff and volunteers at the KCC Pohukaina Food Pantry, where I learned by creating and sharing a brochure product that brings attention to essential food security issues and offers a delicious shelf-stable recipe and instructions for a shelf-stable meal plan. It is my intention to create media projects, such as producing content for YouTube videos with sustainable recipes and resilient pantry tips, so that students and the community can access reliable and credible data to make informed choices on pathways to wellness. I encourage you to seek out and explore the learning opportunities present all around you every day. Here at school and all around our communities where we live and work. We may not have control of natural events, disruptions, or hazards, but we have complete control of how we prepare for and react to disruptions in our individual selves and, ultimately, in our community.
With Cheer,
Jose Andres Zavala