Cultural Foods Coordinator Keeps Pantry Shelves Stocked with Staples for All

When clients walk through the aisles of an emergency food pantry within the Hunger Task Force network, they have a variety of healthy items at their fingertips to bring home to cook healthy, cultural recipes.

Pasua Chang, our Cultural Foods Coordinator, is dedicated to bridging the gap between stocking food pantry shelves with healthy food and healthy, cultural food – people crave.

To better meet the needs of our community, Pasua is surveying hundreds of community members to learn what they want to see at their local food pantry. To date, she’s learned fresh fruits and vegetables are a must! Good thing the Hunger Task Force Farm produces nearly 500,000 pounds of food per year to serve Milwaukee’s hungry residents. From peppers, collards and tomatoes to apples and pears, our farm grows a variety of culturally appropriate produce to infuse into our food bank supply.

Pasua is also hard at work creating monthly MyPlate-friendly and cultural recipes that feature ingredients found on pantry shelves or in Stockboxes – a monthly food box distributed to low-income seniors. As a daughter of immigrants, she grew up watching her parents cook Hmong dishes in their kitchen here in Milwaukee. Pasua knows first-hand that food is an attainable way to celebrate your rich heritage. From Tinolang Manok, a Filipino dish, to Three Sisters Soup, a Native American favorite, Pasua honors a variety of cultures through her recipe development. 

Pasua joined the Hunger Task Force team in 2022 to follow her passion for community nutrition. Every day, she takes immense pride in educating the public about the ways you can cook healthy cultural recipes on a budget.