If you Teach it, They will Eat it

Another of my favorite talks from the TEDx Manhattan conference was by Dr. Melony Samuels.  Dr. Samuels is the founder and director of the Bed-Study Campaign Against Hunger.  This organization runs a food pantry and community garden.  In her talk Dr. Samuels tells the story of how this innovative food pantry, which allows people to pick from their stock whatever items they choose, found itself stocking fresh produce that people weren't taking.  So, they started teaching people how to cook with the vegetables they were unfamiliar with.  Lo and behold, after the clients learned how to use these vegetables they started to "buy" them.  Next the pantry took their backyard and turned it into a garden that the local community cared for and used the vegetables they grew to stock the pantry.  Here Dr. Samuels tell this story and more in her own words below.