Cleveland Clinic, with Support from Meijer, Commits to Teaching Kitchen at Langston Hughes Community Health & Education Center

Food insecurity impacts many communities across the country, including those in Greater Cleveland. To help alleviate this circumstance, Cleveland Clinic is establishing a community teaching kitchen at its Langston Hughes Community Health and Education Center located in Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood. The teaching kitchen is part of Cleveland Clinic’s $10.4 million commitment to address childhood hunger and food insecurity in Cleveland.

In addition to access to healthy food, cooking skills and nutritional knowledge can contribute to diets that may help people prevent, delay and manage chronic diseases. At the new teaching kitchen, Cleveland Clinic’s clinical and cultural experts will bring evidence-based education to the community. It will offer free cooking classes and programs customized to individuals with dietary needs associated with chronic diseases. Participants will gain cooking skills and nutritional literacy to help ensure their families can prepare healthy and affordable meals.

“There is a connection between proper nourishment and healthy growth, development and well-being,” said Monica Yepes-Rios, M.D., Medical Director, Community Health Equity/Food as Medicine at Cleveland Clinic. “We encourage patients and the community to approach food as medicine, and our teaching kitchens help participants incorporate that concept into everyday life.”

Cleveland Clinic will collaborate with community-based organizations to ensure residents and families who could benefit from nutrition education are aware of this new resource.

“Our goal is to provide community members and patients with nutritional education and cooking skills in a trusted, easily accessible, physical place to learn and practice,” said Dr. Yepes-Rios.

The teaching kitchen at Langston Hughes was supported by a donation from Meijer. As a long-time donor, Meijer has partnered with Cleveland Clinic many times to address community needs. In January 2024, Meijer opened Fairfax Market, bringing a mix of fresh, local and convenient food to customers in Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood.

This new community resource at Langston Hughes builds on the success of Cleveland Clinic’s first community teaching kitchen, which opened in 2011 and is in the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Health Center. Classes that teach participants healthy ways of cooking will continue to be offered at this location.

The Langston Hughes teaching kitchen is expected to open in 2025.