Faduma Ibrahim and her daughters, Amira, age 2 ½, and Aziza, 5, stood in the hubbub of Buffalo’s PS 094 West Hertel Academy cafeteria as Grace Anstett preheated her electric frying pan and loaded it with potatoes and green beans. 

The Ibrahim family wasn’t there specifically to learn to cook. In fact, Aziza was more charmed by a display of rubber fruits and vegetables than what was being browned and seasoned in the pan. 

A Somali refugee who has lived in Buffalo for 12 years, Ibrahim brought her girls to the neighborhood school on a snowy winter weekend to attend one of Buffalo Public Schools’ Saturday Academies, an educational, recreational, cultural, social and wellness program for the whole family that included free breakfast and lunch, and a lively farmers market of free and locally produced foods. 

As Anstett added a squeeze of lemon to her Tuscan Potato Skillet, Ibrahim leaned in. “In my culture,” she says, “we eat a lot of rice and chicken, sometimes cooked together, sometimes separately.” 

A SNAP-Ed New York nutrition educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) Erie County, Anstett understands food is like that – a universal solvent, a connector when cultures intersect. The nearly 500 attendees on Feb. 1 hailed from many countries and spoke many languages, drawn together by a desire to entertain their kids on a frigid Saturday morning and to stock up on refrigerator staples for the week ahead.

“This is a great example of trying to leverage the different services that CCE offers to support our long-term partnership with Buffalo Public Schools,” says Diane Held, executive director of CCE Erie County. “Harvest New York coordinates the grant and supply chains for these free farmer markets that Buffalo Public School Community Schools facilitate within their Saturday Academies.  Our SNAP-Education nutrition educators bring recipes, nutrition information, and ideas on how families can make the most of the ingredients given away at the farmer markets.”

The district applied for, and received, a $2 million NY Food for NY Families grant, a boon to Buffalo families and area food producers, with $1.7 million to be spent on food alone.  

On this day, volunteers like math teacher Kim Holzman stacked a long line of tables with apples and onions, frozen split chickens and Stoltzfus cheese curds, bibb lettuce and quarts of chocolate milk. Tucked into brown paper bags were shaggy poufs of lion’s mane mushrooms, an exotic offering that had some marketgoers scratching their heads. The Buffalo Bills donated market bags for everyone to pack their selections into, coveted cartons of fresh eggs peeking out the tops of most. 

The Saturday Academies have been going on for about eight years, said Melissa Kimbrell, SNAP-Ed New York regional coordinator with CCE Erie County. But the market and cooking demos, held twice a month at four different schools each time, are a recent addition since Cheryl Bilinski, the CCE HNY Farm to School program lead, and Bridget O’Brien Wood, Buffalo Farm Share grant coordinator, wrote their successful grant. 

“Each one is set up for the students and families, but anyone is welcome to go. They all look a little different based on the needs of that school, but they are open to the community,” Kimbrell says. A recent academy featured recipes for the holiday season, she said, with a selfie photo booth, live turtles from the SPCA and information about assessing lead levels in the home. 

At West Hertel Academy on Feb. 1, the big draws were henna hand tattoos, fancy neon-colored hair clip-ins and a heated pickup basketball game in the school gymnasium. Principal Lafraya Wilson zoomed around air-traffic-controlling, reuniting a lost child with their family, urging the crowd to queue up by lottery number for the farmers market. 

“It’s one of the coldest days, but we’ve got good attendance,” she said, surveying the bustling room with satisfaction, noting the 10 or so teachers who had volunteered for the weekend event. 

“The kids get so excited to see their teachers doing this,” says Wilson, who has been at the school for six years but is in her first as principal at what she calls “the School of Love.” 

The free food market was a central draw for most of the parents and caregivers in attendance; the nutrition education component is part of a USDA-approved curriculum that is available to those receiving or eligible for SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps).

The curriculum is used in both school and adult settings, its content and format varying depending on the site, said Xyricka Ferry, SNAP-Ed program manager for Erie County. 

“It’s basic nutrition education with food demonstrations that include small samplings. The goal is to showcase healthy, low-cost, easy-to-make recipes while highlighting the foods that will be distributed,” she says. With funding dispersed through the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, CCE last summer was named one of the implementing agencies. 

The intention of this program, according to O’Brien Wood, was to connect underserved communities with disadvantaged local producers. She says the community has frequently responded by seeking out these products that they weren’t aware of before: apple cider and cold-pressed juices; cheese curds and tofu; maple syrup; and flavored yogurts. 

“It’s largely a population of new Americans, new to what to do with some of these ingredients,” she said. “Buffalo is so richly diverse. In Buffalo Public Schools alone, there are more than 80 languages spoken and more than 100 countries represented. These communities have large Hispanic and Muslim populations. Probably 20% of people who visit the markets are looking for halal meats.” 

Putting the market together has added complexity because participating purveyors have to offer products made in New York. One vendor, Issa’s Pita Chips in Buffalo, had to change their recipe, swapping out their previous flour for one produced in state, in order to participate. Eligible products include fresh produce, meat, dairy, eggs, seafood, fish and processed food with at least 51% of NY ingredients, and the remaining 49% of ingredients sourced within 400 miles.

There wasn’t anything complicated about what drew an audience to Anstett’s demo. It was the come-hither fragrance of her bean-and-potato dish as she gave it its finishing touches. She had activities for the kids – interactive cards about how to make foods healthier, illustrations and props from USDA’s My Plate that promote a healthy diet. For the parents, mostly moms, the draw was also a little bit of conversation. 

A veteran of AmeriCorps working on the Field & Fork Network in Buffalo, which oversees a program that helps families buy more fruits and vegetables, Anstett started working with SNAP-Ed last summer.  

“I love the nutrition aspect of environmental justice,” she said. But she admits that the performance element of these demos can be “nerve-wracking.” 

“It’s much more enjoyable when it’s a conversation, a communication with the participants and getting their input,” she said. 

On a cold winter’s Saturday, their input was that a warm jumble of green beans and new potatoes was just right.