PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The nonprofit Everybody Eats Philly is celebrating its one-year anniversary of fighting food insecurity this weekend, which also coincides with a Juneteenth celebration.
“We started during a time of social unrest in the city and realized quickly that there is a need for food,” explained chef Stephanie Willis.
Willis founded the organization alongside four other Black Philly chefs, including Aziza Young, who said she was shocked to learn how many people are actually in need of food.
“And a lot of the people who need food are senior citizens,” she added.
The free Everybody Eats party kicks off Saturday at noon at Malcolm X Park in West Philadelphia, which is also Juneteenth.
“That’s the day that Black people were emancipated from slavery,” said Young. “That is our Fourth of July, and to celebrate our Everybody Eats one-year anniversary on Juneteenth is monumental.”
Young noted American comfort food is based on Black southern comfort food, which has its roots in slavery.
“Black people weren’t allowed the delicacies that the slave owners had, so we had to make do with what we had,” she said. “It’s not just the mac and cheese, the collard greens, the fried fish, the fried chicken — all those are great though. But you also had your chitterlings, your pigs’ feet.”
You used every part of the animal “from the rooter to the tooter,” Willis added.
To make the event even more special, Willis’ great aunts will be cooking. She recently discovered that her great-grandmother once had a farm where she too fed the community.
“She made sure everybody eats way back when, which really kind of touched my heart knowing that what I’m doing is not new.”
For more on Everybody Eats Philly, listen to the KYW Newsradio original podcast What’s Cooking on the Audacy app.