Cleveland Clinic goes beyond new grocery store to combat food insecurity

Reversing food insecurity and making a lasting impact in the Cleveland Fairfax neighborhood is a pledge the Cleveland Clinic continues to uphold. In part of its $10.4 million commitment, the clinic is starting another venture.

“So delighted to have our partners to build this teaching kitchen for the service of the community to really elevate knowledge and ability to just address healthy foods and healthy eating,” said Dr. Monica Yepes-Rios, Medical Director of Community Health Equality Food Medicine Initiative.

Just this year, in partnership with Meijer, Cleveland Clinic opened its Meijer Fairfax Market, helping bring a mix of fresh, local food to the neighborhood, which was once classified as a food desert. Rios said health doesn’t start by having better access to healthy ingredients but rather by learning what to do with them. All that learning will now take place at the new Langston Hughes community teaching kitchen.

”Community members can come in, they can learn how to cook, they can learn cooking skills, they can learn about nutritional literacy, just like how to read food labels, how to use them properly in cooking, how to cook safely, how to do it in a budget so that people can go back home, and know what foods they should not buy,” said Rios.

This isn’t the clinic's first teaching kitchen. Cleveland Clinic opened the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Health Center in 2011, so this new kitchen is building off that initial effort. Multiple cooking classes and lessons will be offered daily for community members to participate taught by other community partners. Some classes offered will even be super specialized, like teaching people how to manage, cook, and eat with certain chronic diseases or conditions.

“We intend to have cooking classes really leveraging the expertise of our Cleveland Clinic clinical experts, culinary experts, experts in culture and in the community,” said Rios. “Also many other partners in the community who also have that expertise in culinary medicine in the community and be able to offer many different classes for the community.”

Rios said this new teaching kitchen is about community members taking charge of their health and fully having the resources to do so.

“Yet another project for the community that I think will be just immensely impactful for the community,” Rios added.

The new Langston Hughes community teaching kitchen will open in 2025.

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