Lucy Gellman Photo
Mubarakah Ibrahim has a new assignment this week: make fufu. Make fresh, healthy fufu.
Already a health and wellness coach by day, she picked up the extra work by choice, as a dedicated class manager with health advocacy group Cooking Matters. A student in the class asked two weeks ago, and she turned to the internet and began to look for recipes.
Funny? A little, she says. It’s definitely not how she planned to spend the little free time she has.
But important? Absolutely. For her, it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Ibrahim brought that story to her latest episode of “Mornings with Mubarakah,” returning to an issue close to her heart: health disparities in economically disadvantaged communities. The episode marks the second installment in her “Fat and Poor” series on WNHH radio. (Read and listen to the first here.)
Joined by New Haven Community Service Administrator Martha Okafor and New Haven Healthy Start Director Kenn Harris (pictured above), Ibrahim spoke about how the city is working actively against health disparities with its Health in Your Hands campaign, organizations like Cooking Matters, New Haven Farms, and New Haven Healthy Start.
Paul Bass File Photo
That information is vital, Okafor and Harris agreed, because obesity in New Haven — and across the country — corresponds overwhelmingly with economic status. Discussing “the politics of paying for obesity” and staggering infant mortality rate in America, Harris dove right in.
“Poverty is huge,” he said. “You begin to look in communities where there are disparities around economics … when we look at where babies are born, infant mortality leads us to looking at other issues. Place matters — you begin to see the cycles repeat themselves, so it begins to open the door to looking at these communities.”
The city is working on a solution — or more accurately, a constellation of solutions — Okafor added. They include a series of “Family Fun” neighborhood festivals next year, that will piggyback off of next week’s New Haven Health Equity Summit in getting the city eating better and moving more.
To listen to the full episode, click on the audio above.
