Community Lunch with Yong Shin of Insa
Good food for the people! For each Community Lunch, Pioneer Works and FIG invite a local chef to prepare a menu offered free of charge to our Red Hook and neighboring communities.
This Community Lunch features food by Yong Shin of Insa. Come hungry!
Community Lunch was created to build community across identities with a priority focus on the residents who have been taking care, organizing, and holding down Red Hook for many years. Its fabric is made up of predominantly Black, Latinx, and Chinese residents in the neighboring NYCHA housing.
This event aims to work alongside and learn from the local organizations that have implemented solutions to food insecurity in an area that’s largely considered a food desert. We aim to contribute to their existing efforts aimed at achieving food sovereignty.
Everyone is welcome! We kindly ask you to take care when pulling up. Wait to get in line, introduce yourself to a stranger, make your neighbor a plate, and make space so there’s room for everybody.
Presented by Pioneer Works in partnership with FIG and ARV Kitchen
About Yong Shin
Yong (he/him) has always been in love with food: the various cultures, rituals, providing & sharing — the way we connect through food as a medium. Growing up in the Middle East in a Korean household, Yong was fortunate enough to be brought up on homemade kimchi and the surrounding local and expat cultures. After attending art school in NY, Yong quickly fell into the restaurant industry and the rest is history. When he's not cooking, you can find him rock climbing, biking or eating at a homie's joint. As the Chef/Partner at Insa, Yong is able to express his Korean identity, his background in seasonal Italian cooking, and by whatever else inspiration strikes. His food is informed by his upbringing and inspired by the seasons and collaborators. Culture is always shifting and Yong doesn't believe in firm tradition. There is always room for play and expression in food, as long as it is intentional and, of course, delicious.
About FIG
FIG is a grassroots collective of chefs, farmers & organizers working to transform the food system in New York and beyond. FIG fosters deep partnerships between the food world, social justice movements and frontline community organizations. Their work is based in solidarity, cooperation, and resource redistribution.
FIG’s current collaborative initiatives include:
- Food Security Program, in partnership with growers Rock Steady Farm and Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm; independent food businesses Pixie Scout and ARV Sweets; and community organizations Black Trans Liberation and Colectivo Intercultural Transgrediendo to provide free fresh produce and prepared meals weekly.
- Community Culinary Workshops, an innovative popular education program designed to empower queer, trans, Black and brown chefs to share skills and recipes with their communities.
- Study Group, a monthly gathering for political education and relationship building for food workers, founded in 2014.
About ARV Kitchen
Gabriel and Pedro are the Arvizu brothers who run Arvi Sweets and ARV Kitchen. Inspired by their Mexican roots, the brothers produce authentic handcrafted baked goods that have become staples in many shops around Brooklyn and Manhattan. The brothers’ desire to give back to the community facilitated their partnership with FIG to provide their family recipes and turn them into culturally relevant, lovingly prepared meals. ARV Kitchen’s goal is to provide a piece of home to those they serve. Learn more about ARV Kitchen
Community Lunch is made possible by Nissan.