Every day at the Garden of Joy Culinary Academy starts with a mindfulness circle. Before teens put on aprons and start chopping veggies, they grab fruit patterned pillows and sit down in the dining room of an old Frisch’s in Clifton.
Executive Director Ali Rizvi leads the group through breathing exercises. Then, he asks a question to get people to share their experiences.
“When you’re about to snap, or you're feeling really angry, what is one thing you wish adults would say or do for you that would help?”
While the teens are here to learn how to cook, Garden of Joy has a broader mission. The free, after-school program is working to reduce gun violence, increase graduation rates and foster safer communities.
Garden of Joy takes root
Rizvi is a Cincinnati Public Schools social worker in the West End. He helped start Garden of Joy after 11-year-old Domonic Davis was shot and killed at a playground in the neighborhood in 2023.
“We had to do something to make sure that our youth, especially our youth that are at risk of being exposed to gun violence, are safe during those after-school hours, and they're learning the skills that are going to make them less likely to find themselves engaging in dangerous behaviors,” Rizvi said.
The program aims to help middle- and high school-aged students with chronic discipline issues. Many have experienced trauma related to gun violence or living in poverty.
Twice a week, the same group of about 20 teens comes to this restaurant-turned-training kitchen. Volunteers offer them help with homework, kitchen safety and gardening skills, all while teaching nonviolence, coping strategies and empathy.
“So that way, when they become an adult, they know how to cook for themselves, they know how to handle themselves in times of conflict, and they know how to deal with conflict without resorting to violence,” Rizvi said.
An edible curriculum
In the kitchen, teens are listening to instructions for cooking the night’s dinner. Enchiladas are on the menu.
Dominic Bley is head chef and culinary arts director. He says he takes a practical, hands-on approach to teaching. He guides students to slice sweet potatoes, cook ground beef and warm tortillas.
“A lot of the time, I will have an idea of the recipe in my head, but a lot of the fun of doing it here with the kids is allowing them to take control of the recipe however they see fit,” Bley said. “I'll ask them to taste something and see if it needs some more salt, or could use a little bit of this, a little bit of that.”
Keeping students engaged in the kitchen connects to the program's bigger goals.
“It's not just to remove kids from an environment that may be leading them to make dangerous choices — you have to replace it with something that is equally as fulfilling and restores them in spirit, mind and body,” Bley said. “That's something we try to offer here.”
Students find calm, cooking skills
Students come to Garden of Joy for a variety of reasons.
Ralph White is 13 years old. His church suggested he get involved.
“They had got me into this program to learn to stop being in the streets,” White said.
He says coming to Garden of Joy keeps him from doing “stupid stuff.” He says he’s learned how to find a sense of calm here.
“You know, you can feel that moment, that good moment, when you’re trying to calm down, try[ing] to chase away ... what you went through, skip past the memories, think about something else you want to do,” White said.
Over in the kitchen, 16-year-old Montez Hinton cuts grapefruits to make juice. He says he started coming here because he’s interested in baking and cooking.
“You’ve got to stick a fork in there and twist it around — I never knew how to do that before, until now,” Hinton said. “So, [I’m] glad I'm learning something here.”
He says he plans on taking the skills he learns at Garden of Joy into his future.
Building a more peaceful world around the dinner table
Allowing the teens to work together to make a shared meal is powerful, Bley says.
“The dinner table, or just food in general, is one of the primary social fabrics that hold society and families and friendships and all kinds of relationships together,” Bley said.
Bley adds, learning to cook is more than a useful skill. Garden of Joy tries to instill in its students that a love of food is really a love for people, and cooking together can be a first step in creating a more peaceful world.
At the end of the evening, the group gathers in the dining room again — this time around two long tables to share the meal they made together.
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