Inter-Tribal Pantry Presents: Heart Health Day at Forest Park

The GSC team is proud to report back after our first Native Wellness series for 2023 titled "Heart Health Day" at Forest Park in Queens NY. We are grateful to our educator Ana Puente Flores, a Mexica Movement lawyer in training and herbalist apprentice. She guided the community through creating a heart-healthy tea using herbs from her culture and demonstrated how to make cacao spread using raw cacao beans from scratch. She shared stories from her childhood and community under the trees while participants peeled the cacao beans. We were also joined by Leo Cordier of Buffalo Jump NYC for a Bison meatball tasting and open mic discussion. We also want to thank Tezka Arias for stepping in to do an opening ceremony and blessing the food we distributed. The day's pantry items included items like Cactus, Batatas, Tomatoes, Black beans, Bison Meat, and more.

Thanks to the support of the Mellon Foundation and Urban Indian Health Institute, we were able to distribute 1232 LBS of food to 192 community members.