4 minute read
Willow Valley Communities & the Power Packs Project
—Chef Fernando Garcia-Aguila
On just about any day of the week, residents will find catering chef Fernando Garcia-Aguila effortlessly creating show-stopping recipes for events held at Willow Valley Communities. His culinary repertoire covers traditional American dishes, as well as those tried and true from his native Cuba. His smile never dims and his love of serving never falters.
Fernando knows what it’s like to need help. But he also knows what it’s like to get that help. It took Fernando eight attempts before he successfully escaped his native communist Cuba on July 4, 2007. Eventually finding himself in Lancaster, PA, without knowing a word of English, he worked hard and studied hard. Beyond learning the language, his focus was always on his goal of becoming an American citizen.
Along the way, Fernando was helped by many Lancastrians who never forgot their own immigrant roots. And Fernando has never forgotten their kindness. He recalls the story of one couple he met while working at a produce stand at Lancaster’s vibrant Central Market. The job was a tough one for Fernando; he knew only a few words in English for the many fruits and vegetables he was trying to sell at the stand. Many people ignored him—too impatient to try to understand what he was saying— too much in a hurry to purchase their produce from someone who had to struggle with the words. Fernando, filled with frustration, was brought to tears several times, until the day he met a couple who said they wanted to teach him English. He graciously took them up on their offer.
During one of the language tutorials in their home, Fernando asked the couple why they were helping him. Fernando says that he will never forget the response. The man went upstairs and returned with an old photo album, which was filled with black and white photos of his family who had come to America from the Czech Republic. “He then looked at me straight in the eyes,” Fernando recounts, “and he said, ‘The same way someone helped my family when they came here, that’s how I want to help you.’ ”
“That’s what it came down to. He just wanted to help me,” Fernando remembers. “What an awesome gesture.”
And now, Fernando is delighted that he is now in a position to be able to give back and help the Lancaster community he has grown to love. He’s working with a Lancaster nonprofit, Power Packs Project. Power Packs provides nutritious meals over weekends to children when school breakfast and lunch programs are unavailable to them. Power Packs’ executive director, Jennifer Thompson, explains, “Nutrition plays a vital role in children’s ability to succeed in school. Hungry children can’t learn.” Power Packs currently serves 1,350 children 32 weeks out of school year. It operates through private donations. www.powerpacksproject.org
Children have fun while learning about cooking from Willow Valley Communities’ Chef Fernando.
Through Willow Valley Communities’ partnership with Lancaster’s Power Packs Project, Fernando is able to share his passion for culinary arts with the children of the School District of Lancaster. Fernando, working with Power Packs, runs fun, educational cooking demonstrations using the food items donated each week to the students. He shows the children how to prepare the meal, and he talks to them about the different ingredients and spices. It’s his hope that the children he works with will take what they learn from him and share it with their families at home. “It’s not so much about cooking it, but about talking about it. To be involved as a family,” Fernando explains. Fernando appreciates his position as catering chef at Willow Valley Communities and the flexible creativity it allows for him to be able to do this.
“You never know what passion you are awakening within a child when you are teaching,” Fernando says. He hopes that through this program with Power Packs, some of the children may consider culinary arts as a career path. “It would really be rewarding for me if one of the children in the program comes back to me in 20 years as a chef and says, ‘Hey, I was that kid...’ ” Fernando truly believes that one meal can change everything for a child. As a boy growing up in Cuba, he had to cook for his two younger twin brothers while both of his parents worked. “Food is what started everything for me,” he remembers. “Food makes people happy and it brings people together. Mealtimes are sharing times,” he says.
But whether that one demonstration affects a child’s entire life, or just stays with them for one meal, Fernando says that even one meal with his or her family is a gift. “Every smile behind a plate is priceless,” he says with a wink.
