Penn Hills Middle School celebrates Black History Month with soul food experience

Penn Hills Middle School students experienced firsthand the power of soul food in honor of Black History Month.

On Friday morning, the scent of sweet and savory spices wafted from the home economics classroom. Select students from sixth through eighth grades gathered in the room to learn about and present their research on the history of soul food and how it connects to Black culture.

“We’ve started a Black History series where we introduce Black History (to the students) and the soul food to go with it,” said Mary Wakefield, Penn Hills Middle School counselor and host of the event. “For some kids, fast food is replacing soul food, and we want to make sure that we’re bringing it back, bringing the flavors back while covering the history and what each food means.”

After the presentations, students were able to try some soul food staples including sweet potatoes, black-eyed peas, mac and cheese, fried chicken, fried fish, barbecue chicken, green beans with and without meat, ribs, potato salad, banana pudding and hushpuppies. Most of the dishes were made fresh in the classroom by Wakefield, Tiona Bennett, a sixth grade paraprofessional, and Latira Miles, a building substitute for Penn Hills.

“It’s so important that we don’t lose our recipes and the history behind them,” Wakefield said. “We want them to continue to carry this on to the future so that we’re not losing who we are as a people. This is Black excellence and (the students) need to know who they are.”

According to Britannica, soul food is the cuisine of areas in the Deep South that millions of African Americans brought with them when they moved to the North, Midwest and West during the 1910s through the 1970s. Soul food is a cuisine that fuses together the culinary traditions of West Africa, Western Europe and the Americas. The building blocks of soul food are fish, protein, legumes, sweet potatoes and dark, leafy greens.

Wakefield said there are a few important elements for a dish to be considered soul food.

“All the love and the joy that goes in (to making) it,” Wakefield said. “All the hard work, the family time and sharing recipes. Those are the things that make soul food. Every culture can enjoy it. It crosses with every culture. You got your mac and cheese, your fried chicken, your corn bread — all of that crosses over to other cultures.”

Wakefield spoke about her family’s annual tradition of hosting a sweet potato pie contest every year. She said her mom would win each year until she retired after being beaten by Wakefield’s sister. The tradition helps to strengthen her relationship with soul food, her culture and her family.

Penn Hills student Ajennae Tolbert, 14, said the presentations were a nice learning experience. She said she liked the lesson and was able to relate it to her life at home.

“My whole family cooks,” Ajennae said. “Usually when they cook, I’m in the kitchen with them trying to help them. It’s anything like chicken, mashed potatoes — just any type of food. I’m in the kitchen cooking with them.”

Gabriel Alfarl, 14, said it was nice to be able to learn about different cultures.

“I’m not from here,” Gabriel said. “I like it a lot, getting to hear all of these stories and all of the history.”

It was his first day getting to try soul food, but he said he was excited to try a little bit of everything on the table.

Jahrome Santiago Ortiz, 13, said he loved the presentations and trying the food even more. He cooks at home and often tries to spice up traditional recipes by adding his own little twists to them.

“I mainly do toast, eggs, spam and sometimes some ramen,” he said. “I’ll add different seasonings to see how they turn out.”