Healing through Food and Faith
I was born on December 9th, just one day before my uncle’s birthday. Because of this coincidental connection to her youngest son, my maternal grandmother took special care of me from the moment that I entered this world. With 13 siblings, I didn’t always get my mother’s undivided attention—so my grandmother became the most important person in my childhood.
My grandmother gave me her attention, her love, but perhaps the most meaningful gift she shared with me was her talent for cooking.
As the keeper of the family recipes, she was respected as the top authority in our kitchen, where she began teaching me when I was only seven years old. Macaroni and cheese is the first dish that I mastered, and despite my very young age, I would get requests from family members and neighbors to make it for events or gatherings.
From my grandmother, I learned family recipes, comfort foods, and healthy dishes. She demonstrated how the food that we eat and the way that we cook shapes our health and well-being. In my grandma’s kitchen, everything was made from scratch, with awareness of both nutritional and sentimental value.
Cooking with my grandmother made me feel so proud of myself when I was a little girl. She saw talent in me and encouraged me to recognize it in myself. I find myself wondering now if she had any idea how far it would take me in my adult life.
As I grew up, the kitchen became a refuge during difficult times in my adolescence. When I was about to enter ninth grade, my family moved from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Detroit, Michigan, where I was teased for my Southern accent and surrounded by poverty.
When I was 19, my high school sweetheart became my child’s father. We were young, but we were a great parenting team—until he was diagnosed with sickle cell anemia. When my son was 13 years old, his father passed away. Suddenly, I was a single parent to a young man, trying to fill the roles of the mother and the father.
I found a job in a kitchen “alley,” which is the service area behind the kitchen where food is received and prepared. Even in the fast-paced, demanding environment of the alley, working in the kitchen made me realize that I wanted to go back to earn my degree at culinary school. I attended Dorsey College and then secured a role as Head Chef at a multimillion dollar corporation.
Over the next 27 years, I worked my way up the corporate ladder, eventually becoming a supervisor assistant. This role brought me to Minnesota, where I ran operations at seven stores and opened several more across various locations. I supervised and trained hundreds of employees working in the kitchens, but I still took every chance to do my own cooking. If I was at a store that was experiencing a busy day or a lunch rush, I would always jump in and help the kitchen staff catch up. I also competed against other chefs—I won three grill master competitions in a row!
Then, I had an accident. I was electrocuted while working in the kitchen. 220 volts of electricity shot up my body, leaving third to fourth degree burns on my feet, my hands and fingertips, and even the back of my head.
The accident left me in the burn center for two months before I was sent to a nursing home in a wheelchair. From 2014 until 2017, I was immobile, spending most of my time in bed with a nurse at my side. For someone who used to go to the gym every day and run 10 miles at a time, this period in my life was awful. I had very little family or community here, so I turned to Masjid An-Nur and Imam Makram El-Amin looking for support.
By turning to my faith and my faith community during this time, I finally started to feel like the world was not just beating me up. I stopped feeling sorry for myself and began to accept that Allah was now pulling me closer to Him. Through therapy, I even began healing from my PTSD, which had left me anxious about entering a kitchen or touching a metal object.
As I recovered physically and mentally, I felt that Allah was guiding me back to the kitchen. But this time, I was infused with a higher purpose—I wanted to give back to the community that had supported me, and I wanted to serve God. That’s how I became Director of Food Services at Masjid An-Nur and Al-Maa’uun.
Now, I am in charge of making 10,000 meals a month. Through Meals on Wheels, my team and I prepare nutritious, delicious, halal meals for senior citizens in North Minneapolis and St. Paul. I love serving this community because I feel that my elders have paved the way for me to be who I am today. My other hat in the organization is ServeSafe training and tutoring for young people who want to get the professional kitchen manager certificate. I still have some lingering effects from the accident, but I just pray and keep moving.
In addition to my day job, my husband and I started Busy Beez LLC, which provides catering services for families and community events. I also hope to start my own nonprofit called Hope for People in Pain to feed community members who are unhoused. I would love to start a food truck that could visit encampments around the metro area in order to offer a sense of stability and a spark of hope.
For me, a hot meal has always been a symbol of comfort. That is the legacy that I hope to leave behind—that I have helped sustain my community through the power of food.
I feel like I celebrate Black History Month every day of the year, especially when I cook for senior citizens. Sometimes we overlook the elders who live in our own communities and neighborhoods, but there are so many locals who are living history. My own mother is 93 years old, and she tells me all the time how proud she is of what I do. I think if my grandmother were still here, she would tell me that I am living out her best dream.
Asiya Cheeks-Jordan is the 13th child born of her mother. She was held in high regard by her grandmother, who shared her most secret recipes with Asiya, including her infamous macaroni and cheese, at the age of 7. Asiya started making full meals and perfecting her craft, and by the time she graduated high school, she knew cooking was her passion. She worked for a multimillion-dollar corporation, working her way up from coordinator, to chef, to supervisor. After her only son finished school, she decided to go back to school as well and attained her culinary degree. She graduated from Dorsey College, obtaining her service, hospitality, hosting, and beverage professional degrees. She has managed seven stores and trained hundreds of people over her 27 years of service.
Asiya started BUSY BEEZ LLC in 2000 as a food service company and contracted with Al-Maa’uun after suffering a major accident at work. This life-changing moment led her to Al-Maa’uun, where she feels she was summoned by God. Asiya is the Director of Food Services at Al-Maa’uun, providing breakfast, lunch and dinner for the elderly and children. She is responsible for making over 1,000 meals per day. Her other hat in this nonprofit is ServeSafe training and tutoring for young people who want to get a professional kitchen manager certificate.
Asiya is spreading love through food and hopes to strengthen and give back to the community working with Al-Maa’uun. You can find Asiya on any given day in the kitchen and working on the weekend, feeding the community and the homeless with her God-given talents.