We’re so thrilled to welcome Bronx native Yadira Garcia (or as many of us lovingly know her – Chef Yadi) to our team! Yadi brings to our team a decade of deep community and advocacy work in New York City. In her role, she will be spearheading the organization’s innovation and community programming, maintaining control and optimizing day-to-day operations on the ground, and supporting strategic visioning. Welcome to the CH family!

Meet Yadi Garcia 

Tell us about yourself!

Hi my name is Yadira Garcia but many in the community affectionately call me Chef Yadi, or Yadi in friends and family. I grew up in the south Bronx of New York City but deeply connected and identified with my Dominican ancestry and heritage, which is a blend of indigenous, African and Caribbean influences . I’m first generation here which means my parents migrated to America in the late 60s. I’ve grown up spending full summers on my island as a youth and go back several times a year as an adult.

I think the experience of coming from a family or farmers, land stewards and educators deeply impacted my outlook on life and ultimately the work I chose to pursue. Today I am a natural foods trained Chef that teaches about preservation of our ancestral food pathways and practices, an advocate and activist for food sovereignty and access through policy or work directly in community and lastly a creator of Latin kitchen staples based on my family recipes through LOISA, a company I’m part owner of. To me all of these sectors are intertwined and anchored in food equity and justice.

What are you most proud of in your career? What have been your greatest successes and learnings?

I am most proud of the fact that I have been able to build a sustainable career with the work I feel called to do in community, with and for my people. Another nickname I have is “ The People’s Chef”. Especially having received formal training and graduating as a Chef, most aspire to open a restaurant or run a kitchen. I have always known the path I would try to carve out is going directly into service of my people. I see a thread that ties all of my work together.

Growing up as a brown girl in the south Bronx during the 80s and 90s you didn’t see a lot of visibility or opportunity for women of color in positions of leadership, power and creating change. I am really proud of being able to do all of the things I set out to do from that lens; shifting power, leading and creating opportunities for those that may walk alongside me or come after, just as I stand on the shoulders of those that came before me.

While I am proud of the accolades like : having had my own show on the Food Network centered around creating recipes and growing or sourcing food in community spaces like urban farms and gardens, Creating and selling curriculum or programming in my city to CBO’s and schools which directly serves my community. My work has been featured across several publications and outlets, I’ve received city wide recognition for my contributions, Creating a product line from my heart and family recipes that is now available in hundreds of stores nationwide.

It hasn’t been a smooth or easy road, there have been a lot of No’s and closed doors along the way. I am proud to say that I continue to take up space and push against the perceived barriers or reroute from roadblocks. I think WWTAD:What would the ancestors do – and I won’t give up.

How does CH fit into your body of work?

For me Corbin Hill fits directly into the expansion of the aligned vision and strategy we have for the change necessary in our food systems and community work at large. Building the right types of partnership is extremely important. Over the past  seven to eight years I have built a lot of strong sets of varied relationships and experience within NYC food systems, cultural preservations of our food history and practices through education, engagement and policy work.

I’ve learned to recognize allies and coalesce very quickly. Corbin Hill has built an amazing legacy and deep engendered trust in the communities it holds space in. As an organization it’s also heading to a very exciting apex where there is a convergence of a new energy and team that positions us uniquely to deepen and scale the food systems work we are engaging in daily. You can’t do this kind of work alone to build lasting impact and change. It’s an incredible opportunity and honor to take up space and arms in this team to fight for the equity, power and sovereignty that we deserve AND is possible.

What do you hope to bring to the community in your new role as Director of Programs and Innovations? What is your vision/What does success look like?

As Director of Programs and Innovations I hope to bring my brand of energy, urgency, joy and direct action to our alignment in the vision of shifting power and affecting health outcomes in the community. An example of this is the Community Skillshare, I helped to envision and introduce through our Food As Medicine Program. In this experience we are preserving ancestral knowledge and practices by teaching them in community, inviting those community members to bring in their family members and neighbors. Participants then walk away with actual knowledge based products in their hands they helped to make. We have done these in collaboration with a local faith based organization and educational institution across two boroughs.  My vision is to continue erecting models where we can honor  that when several stakeholders in our neighborhoods come together, especially those that live there, we can build progressive environments and movements that create change and positive outcomes. Also those movements can and need to be built by us and for us versus an exploitative or performative projection of what corporations or governments think we need.

I also plan to converge my specialty for working intergenerationally and convening youth to elders in one space to preserve and share their expertise and proficiencies. We each hold a piece of the story. I look forward to helping incorporate workforce development, the creation of knowledge based products and training programs that allow Corbin Hill to lead in piloting scalable models of food sovereignty work in New York and beyond.

How can we support you?

Please follow, share and sign up for our social media and newsletter at Corbin Hill stay up to date on our events/programs they are designed with love and deep intentionality. Participate whenever possible! Engage in your community at a local level, know your rights and who your local electeds are. These are people that are supposed to work for us and our community, give your opinions and use your voice. As a people we cannot afford disengagement or to be disenfranchised, because apathy is weaponized against us in our communities. Of course If you see me, say hello, I love meeting new people and collaborating.

Find Yadi at @happyhealthylatina on IG or send her a message yadira@corbinhillfarm.com