Food With Roots- An Interview
An interview by Summer Kelly:
“Both of my parents are from Panama. I grew up in a large extended family that shared a loving tradition of gathering for Sunday dinner at my maternal Grandmother’s home in Los Angeles. I wanted to replicate the community and warmth of Sunday dinners for my child, but I lived thousands of miles away from the closest family members. As a new mother the question that kept me up at night was: How do I keep my family's traditions and rituals alive?” This question led Boston-based entrepreneur and Harvard graduate, Tracy Skelly, to start a food business making fresh baby meals with what she calls “heritage foods”.
Tracy maintains a connection to her Panamanian heritage by cooking the meals her mother, grandmother, aunts, and great- aunts prepared for her family. The founder and CEO of The Little Cocoa Bean Co., Tracy notes, “ When we provide a meal for our children it is an act of love and of service. I aim to prepare healthy meals with ingredients that have a deep history and can connect small children with their identity and culture. Food with roots.”
As she waits for her flight to depart from Logan International Airport, Tracy and I discuss how food is a love language that preserves personal history.
Where is your family from? Who are your people?
My people are from Panama by way of the West Indies by way of Africa. My great-grandfather Aurthur (Turo) moved his family to Panama in search of employment constructing the Panama Canal. He also raised honeybees and was incredibly successful selling honey locally. Word had gotten around about how much honey he was selling and a company from the United States wanted to buy his honey and sell it in the States. The Panamanian government found out he was selling honey in mass and wanted a piece of his success, they told him he needed to pay more taxes. This conflict settled itself because soon after, red ants ate the bees on his bee farm and he let go of the business.
My grandmother Calarisa earned a living cooking and selling lunch plates to the men who worked on the Panama Canal. She had a strong sense of personal pride from preparing food that preserved the traditions and rituals of her heritage.
I am so inspired by my ancestors and my business is a love letter to my grandmother Clarisa and my Grandfather Arthur, who were both food entrepreneurs.
What food traditions have been passed down in your family?
Many of our food traditions center around Sunday dinners. My mother and father met in Panama as teenagers and eventually immigrated to Los Angeles in the 1970’s. As a means of preserving our Afro-Latino culture in America, every Sunday my mom’s family gathered to eat a meal after church. The foods I always looked forward to were yucca dumplings and sancocho. I remember drinking sorrel, a hibiscus-like drink from the West Indies. These Sunday dinners reflected the loss of our family's homeland and the resilience and perseverance to hold our culture close and bring our family together.
Are there any funny stories or memories from the dinner table or making meals with your family that you want to tell me about?
Ah! So many of my childhood memories center around food. A funny one that I remember is that at the start of every school year all of the children were given homebrewed senna tea. Well, senna is a laxative and it was given to “cleanse” us for a fresh start to the new school year. We hated it and there were never enough bathrooms to go around once it started kicking in.
What are your hopes for The Little Cocoa Bean Co.?
I hope to provide access to fresh, healthy food for babies and toddlers that encourages eating a diverse diet. I want to celebrate the culture and history tied to food and to keep our unique food traditions alive. Our connection to food is our connection to culture, without it our identity, culture, and history won’t survive.
