Driving Change Through Food: Samantha Taylor

Passionate about food and her community, Samantha Taylor aims to improve Westsiders’ health through food. 

This Westside emerging leader grew up in Austin and moved to Garfield Park after high school, where she has worked to improve her community for more than a decade.

Using her background in food and hospitality, Samantha has supported the Garfield Park Community Council’s efforts to bring affordable and accessible food and produce to the neighborhood. 

“I believe food can change the dynamics of a situation,” she said.

Following her mother’s footsteps, Samantha started volunteering for the Garfield Park Community Council’s community market coffee, preparing tea, coffee and pastries for neighbors and market-goers. 

What started as a way to support her mother’s endeavor to improve neighbors’ wellness using the skills she gained through a career dedicated to the food industry became a journey to create sustainable change in the community. 

For about 15 years, she worked for McDonald’s, yet always dedicated time to her community bringing in her passion for food, she said. 

After graduating from a Westside high school, she graduated from Johnson and Wales North Miami campus with an associate’s degree in culinary arts and a bachelor’s in hospitality. 

Throughout her career and community work, Samantha has seen the transformative conversations that can happen when food is shared. 

“Food can solve a massive disagreement,” she said, adding food that is beautifully presented and prepared with care can be a way to start a dialogue. 

Moreover, in a neighborhood with health disparities, having access and education about healthy food can reduce the life expectancy gap affecting Westsiders. 

A 2019 report found Chicago has the largest health disparity in the country and another report found a 16-year-gap between West Garfield Park neighbors and Chicagoans living in the Loop, WTTW reported. These differences are partly caused by structural and socioeconomic inequalities, researchers found. 

In the Garfield Park community market, neighbors get access to fresh produce and food that is often not available in the few corner stores in the community. 

As the grocery stores in the area shut down in recent years, Taylor also helped bring a Garfield Park pop-up grocery store that has become one of the very few options for neighbors to quickly get the food they need, she said. 

“I have had people saying they’re happy we're there because they could save money by not having to take the bus to the grocery store or they were able to walk to the shop to get fresh fruit,” she said. 

However, Samantha’s work goes beyond increasing access to fresh and nutritious food. Last year, she held food demos at the market, educating neighbors on ways to use ingredients available on-site, cook and prepare them. 

The demonstrations started conversations with Wesside neighbors to explore healthier ways of cooking and reducing food waste, she said. She hopes these conversations can help improve neighbors’ health.

“It doesn't necessarily mean that how we cook is bad, because it's just a practice, it's tradition, but there is a better way,” she said. 

As she passes on this knowledge to other neighbors and future generations, Samantha is also working on bringing more business to Garfield Park. In that role, she uses her energy to motivate others and her ability to see other people’s vision to help aspiring entrepreneurs succeed, she said. 

“Sometimes people tend not to see the vision that someone else has, so they can’t relate and be in that joyous place. But having that person get just as excited as they are about their journey makes a difference,” she said. 

As the commercial corridor manager for the Garfield Park Community Council, she worked to attract business owners, including food businesses, to vacant storefronts in Garfield Park. 

She continues to work as a business consultant, helping business owners prepare to open a brick-and-mortar and guiding them through the steps needed to successfully open a business, she said. 

“There's steps to everything. Don't put the cart before the horse. Just make sure you have all the information. Research things yourself,” she recommends to aspiring business owners.

As she looks to the future, Samantha is determined to improve neighbors’ access to fresh food and amenities that increase the quality of life on the Westside while centering community needs, she said. 

“I want to do whatever it takes to help turn Garfield Park into a walking neighborhood,” she said. 

As a consultant, she will continue to bring businesses to the neighborhood to build our own community for us, with us, she said. 

“You have to care and you have to be able to do the work,” she said. 

As a caring neighbor, supportive daughter and proud mother, she will continue to carry her family’s legacy to improve her neighborhood. Just as she supported her mother Angela Taylor in her community work with the Garfield Park Community Council, Samantha’s daughter has stepped in to support the pop-up grocery shop she manages. 

“It’s three generations of us who are actually advocating for Garfield Park. My daughter sees how we get out and service people, help them and motivate them to do better,” she said.