Ep. 22: Food Insecurity and the Importance of Community Involvement with Chef Padua Player

This week Elizabeth & Anna Mackay chat with DC native Executive Pastry Chef Padua Player (aka the Suga Chef), about baking for Joe Biden, issues surrounding food insecurity, and the importance of coming together as a community to help those in need.

We discuss:

• How DC area food banks and non-profits are working to help at-risk families.
• The association between food insecurity and disordered eating and ways we can address this issue.
• How the covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated food insecurity for children and the steps we can take as a community or as individuals to help.
• Ways chefs, public health workers, medical providers, or retailers can work together to change the landscape so that more people have adequate access to healthy and nutrient-dense foods.

Links:

• SugaChef
• Children of Mine Youth Center
• DC Central Kitchen
• Pinney Davenport Nutrition
• Lutz, Alexander & Associates Nutrition Therapy

Executive Pastry Chef Padua Player, also known as SugaChef, has been praised for his work by Vice President Biden, featured on WE TV’s Platinum Weddings and was a competitor on Food Network’s Sweet Genius and Holiday Baking Championship. He won the 2013 Capital Food Fight’s High Stakes Cake Battle in DC, hosted by Duff Goldman. Following that success, he returned in 2014 and 2015 as a celebrity chef judge and appeared on Cooking Channel’s Cake Hunters in 2018. He has his own line of gourmet desserts and has provided his sweet delicacies to countless celebrity clientele. Chef Padua also lends his time and talents to Child of Mine and DC Central Kitchen.