Food

Coming out of a tight recession that left so many families with unpaid bills and too little cash to buy groceries, it seemed fitting to recognize someone who works hard to make sure people have enough to eat. That hard worker is Steveanna Wynn, executive director of Philadelphia's SHARE food program, who was named the 2012 Inquirer Citizen of the Year and received the award Thursday. SHARE provides food for 500 neighborhood food pantries serving low-income families. Last year, SHARE distributed 15 million pounds of food throughout the city, including 6,000 pounds produced at its farm.

IF ROB KATZ tells you that his mother is "a creative genius," that "everything she touches turns to magic," you might chalk it up to his being a devoted son. But when his mother is Bobbi Katz, creator of Bobbi's Best Hummus, you realize that he's just sharing facts. The company's line of hummus and vegan-friendly spreads is exceptionally good, and I'm not just saying that because I was swayed by the subliminal message on the containers: "Your Favorite Hummus. " Or am I? What else, other than the incredible taste, explains the loyalty this product inspires?

RENOWNED storyteller Jane Yolen and daughter Heidi E.Y. Stemple are making magic again in a delightful illustrated cookbook for kids, Jewish Fairy Tale Feasts: A Literary Cookbook (Crocodile Books, $25). There are 18 recipes, including latkes, kugel and blintzes, each spiced with Yolen's folk tales. "We eat and we entertain ourselves with stories," Yolen said during a phone chat from her Massachusetts home. "There's also a great female aspect because in the old days it was the woman in the kitchen and telling stories to the children.

KELSEY BEZILA likes to say she's been cooking with her father, Jim, ever since she could tell the difference between brown sugar and white sugar - probably when she was about 5. Now that she's in college, her spring-break visits to the family home in Mount Ephraim, N.J., include preparing the traditional Easter dishes of her father's childhood. (Easter is March 31.) While Kelsey never got to cook much with her paternal grandmother, Jim is making sure that the family recipes get passed down.

When Annmarie Cantrell, a chef and wellness educator, gives cooking demonstrations, she always talks about the importance of fresh, unprocessed food and her concerns about genetically engineered ingredients. She and her husband, Sam, no longer plant corn on their Maysie's Farm in Chester County, in part because she worries their organically grown crop will be contaminated by windblown pollen from nearby farms that grow genetically engineered corn. She and other members of a fledgling local group, GMO Free PA, are fully behind legislation that would require labeling of foods containing genetically modified organisms that are sold in Pennsylvania.

I'm certain Sarah Palin spoke for many when she tweeted upon hearing the news that a New York judge had prevented implementation of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's efforts to regulate sugary drinks: "Victory in NYC for liberty-loving soda drinkers. To politicians with too much time on their hands we say: Govt, stay out of my refrigerator!" No doubt those "liberty lovers" view dietary habits as a matter of free will and personal responsibility. If only things were so simple. There's no question that most of us can do something about our weight.

THE FIRST THING you notice at Cafe Chismosa are the chilies. The array of rusty-colored habañeros, guajillos, pasillas and anchos live in a thick glass jar on the front counter, alongside a scattering of skinny bodega candles and a pair of grinning Dia de Los Muertos dolls. Jugo Stevcic taps into this stockpile every day. He works them into a marinade for slow-cooked beef short ribs; grinds them with pepitas for a pesto-like pumpkin-seed sauce; blends them up for an en fuego Mayan concoction known as Xni-Pec , or "nose of the dog" - so named because the heat will likely singe your nostrils.

HARRISBURG - A state senator thinks that Pennsylvania ought to do what no other state, including left-leaning California, has done: require that food products be labeled to show whether they contain genetically engineered ingredients. Or at the very least, said Sen. Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery), the bill he introduced Tuesday should start a conversation here on one of the hottest topics in consumer health circles. "I am concerned about the lack of information available about the presence of genetically engineered food, and I believe it is every consumer's right to know what ingredients are found in the products they buy," Leach said Tuesday in an interview.

1 The Food Trust The Philadelphia group's mission is to make healthy, affordable food available to everyone. They work with neighborhoods, schools, grocers, farmers and policymakers. For more information check out thefoodtrust.org or call 215-575-0444. 2Fair Food Stand Stop by the Reading Terminal Market (51 N. 12th St., 215-922-2317, readingterminalmarket.org) to sample locally produced fresh vegetables, fruits, dairy, meats and other goodies. The stand accepts SNAP benefits and often offers double-dollar days.

Amid the lawn grass and grace of a middle-class patch of Montgomery County, families aren't getting enough to eat. So people crowd each week into the Seeds of Hope food pantry in Dresher, part of Upper Dublin Township, where, outwardly anyway, all seems well. "The need is here," said Jim Galloway, a nondenominational Protestant minister from Abington Township who can find only part-time work and uses the pantry to get by. He was visiting Seeds of Hope to find food for dinner for his 64th birthday that day. "This pantry keeps us afloat.