Aaliyah Rene Peña, C’2023 - Theater major, Food Studies minor

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Aaliyah identifies as a Black and Mexican self-taught gardener and home cook. Peña grew up picking lemons and oranges from her abuelita’s garden and licking the pie batter off her Bigmama’s spatula. Baking and cooking were two of her first learned skills as a kid and she has been in love with food ever since.

As a Blaxican, she mostly cooks foods from her two cultures, but she loves to try new dishes. Recently, she mastered homemade pasta and marinara sauce. Ultimately, her goal is to own a grocery store, with a rooftop garden, that turns into a restaurant after a certain time so that she can share her fresh, homemade food with folks. 



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“Spelman College's Food Studies Program, the first interdisciplinary food studies program at an Historically Black College and University, engages students in an innovative exploration of food interdisciplinarity and centers its connectivity to the African Diaspora, intersectionality, and food science. It is our hope that our food scholars will find the needed community, scholarship, and professional opportunities through the program to approach some of these pressing global and local food challenges. "