Food & Drink PEOPLE Making Moves In North Park, a community food program is growing big BY MARA ALTMAN PHOTOS BY COLE NOVAK
ast African mandazi, Somali malawah, North African shakshuka. Behind a chain-link fence on 30 th street in North Park, sandwiched between a church and a lush vegetable garden, lies an unassuming brick patio where every Thursday evening and Saturday morning, a bustling 16-table eatery called MAKE (Merging Agriculture Kitchens and Employment) Café takes shape. It’s here you’ll find some of the most unique and authentic dishes in San Diego. Many of the ingredients they use are plucked right from the garden. E
In the shared commercial kitchen beneath the church, women prep food, peeling the skin from roasted eggplants, sprinkling za’atar, and mixing their signature bizbaz sauce. Native languages that typically swish o ff the tongue—Arabic, Spanish, Somali, Burmese—are put aside in order to try on a new, often stilted, one: English. Some women wear hijabs or colorful headscarves. Others don a simple uniform, a t-shirt emblazoned with the words, “EAT WELL. DO GOOD.”
30 NOVEMBER 2023
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