The Nourishing Kitchen of NYC is a community food program in East Harlem that offers a lot of services to the community, such as free meals, cooking classes, children's nutrition programs, and leadership and skills-based training. One way that the soup kitchen provides healthy meals is by using local and seasonal food, which can be cheaper, taste better, and be healthier. The Executive Chef and Director of the Nourishing Kitchen, Gina Puzzanghera, talks more about eating seasonally and locally below!

Q: How do you provide healthy food to the community?

A: All our programs-hot meals, education, and training-all are focused on health. It's not that other food programs out there don't want to help people learn about healthy food, but this is our theme so we try our best to bring that into everything we do. For example, on our monthly meal menu we explain in a simple and understandable way why the food we're serving is good for people that come to the kitchen. We also use seasonal and local foods in our hot meals. This allows our meals to taste good because the food is fresh.

Q: How is eating seasonally better for your budget and health?

A: Eating seasonally is important for lower costs, fresher food and being environmentally friendly. Seasonal fruits and vegetables are much less expensive. Learning to shop within the seasons helps you create a list of ingredients that are easy to shop for and fits within your budget. For example, strawberries taste terrible in the winter and cost a lot of money. You can save money by learning which vegetables and fruits are in season at the grocery store. Eating fresh foods is the best way to go because they look and taste so much better. If a vegetable tastes delicious, people are more likely to eat it and benefit from the nutrients in it.

Q: How can eating seasonally is environmentally-friendly?

A: Another thing to think about when choosing to eat seasonally is that it can be better for the environment. Usually food that isn't in season is brought to the grocery store from far-away places. The food travels about 1500 miles to get to your kitchen so you are also paying for the cost of transportation, which increases pollution. Also, the food is sprayed with chemicals to keep it fresher until it gets to your grocery store, which is also bad for the environment. We really try to take advantage of the taste and financial benefits of cooking seasonally, and include it in our meals and cooking classes.

Q: How does the Nourishing Kitchen use local foods?

A: We focus on local, fresh produce and are currently growing our own herbs and vegetables at the Target Garden on E. 117th Street between 1st and Pleasant Avenue. We use these items in our hot meals. We also get donations from other community gardeners so we can serve fresh food in all of our meals. In our kids' classes, we give each kid a pot to plant an herb garden to take home or use in a meal we cook together, such as basil on pizza day. The best part about using local foods here at the Nourishing Kitchen is that clients get to enjoy how different local foods taste as well as learn that they can also save them money.

Read more from Gina Puzzanghera by clicking the links below:

• Nourishing Kitchen of NYC
• Gina's involvement at Nourishing Kitchen
• Nutrition classes

To listen to our interview with Gina Puzzanghera, click here for our podcast page.

Harlem Word is a series of interviews with community health experts written by HHPC and reviewed by our Health Advisory Board.