Tristan's Story

My name is Tristan Thakur (17) and I am the founder of Feeding Resilience. A rising senior and Social Science Research Major at Brooklyn Technical High School, my passion for food is rooted in my personal diversity. While my family’s first-generation Indian and Italian cultural roots are evident in daily home-cooked meals, my connection to green fields is deeply rooted in my family’s farmland in Ireland and New Zealand. Born in Luxembourg, where food is commonly described as “French food in German quantities,” I have been raised on “Queens cuisine,” the most culturally diverse urban food environment in the world.

Personally partial to El Pastor tacos and Halal food truck combo platters, my passion extends to more than cuisine itself. For as long as I can remember, summers meant that there would be soil-covered fruits and vegetables on my kitchen counter, grown by a beloved family friend, Antonio. A quiet, elderly man who immigrated from Sicily in 1963, his stooping gait and gnarled hands belied a profuse green thumb and remarkable talent at growing and sharing summer harvests. It was Antonio, his humble skill and his matter-of-fact sharing of food with neighbors, that planted the seed of Feeding Resilience.

While the COVID-19 pandemic exposed food vulnerability in its most acute manifestation, with tens of thousands in daily need, it also presented new opportunities for connectivity between New Yorkers. Both long-established and pop-up food pantries connected with restaurateurs, food distributors and volunteers such as myself. Although the pandemic created more food insecurity, it also created more awareness and action around Feeding Resilience.

Working the night shift at a 24-hour deli in the height of New York’s pandemic summer and Black Lives Matter movement presented yet another perspective of Feeding Resilience. Police officers and first responders mingled in the deli with youth activists and essential personnel, connecting around their shared humanity in need of food and respite from the summer heat and stress.

Although my initial goal of Feeding Resiliency was to explore cultural food traditions in Queens, the interconnecting facets of food as a tool for urban resilience quickly became evident. As a Social Science Research Major, each aspect is equally fascinating and compelling to further explore. Ultimately though, all the facets of Feeding Resilience share connectivity, humanity and resilience. Everyone I speak to gives a similar version of resilience: the capacity to limit negative situations from arising and to overcome adversity when it occurs. Feeding Resilience advocates for food as a tool for urban resilience, in both good times and bad.