Hi friends,

And what a year we’ve had this week. I hope you’ve found solace in close friends and chosen family. I hope you’ve indulged in favorite comfort foods and been distracted by any number of baking shows, cooking competitions, or documentaries featuring the only felon I wouldn’t mind in office, Martha. I am moving through this post election outcome in fragmented foods and am here to remind you, and myself, please eat.

If you’re new here, welcome. You always have a place at this communal table and I invite you to share space as we reimagine what community looks like in the coming years. Sharing skills and leftovers will be vital lifelines. Relying on local farmers, co-ops, and small businesses will reinforce our commitment to people + planet. Learning new cooking techniques, preservation methods, and low waste practices will build our collective resiliency.

And we’ll do it together. Wherever you are in the world, I encourage you to move towards community, today. Whether it be a mutual aid group in your area, fostering through a pet rescue, or joining a new-to-you book or running club, this is your sign to start. What would it look like to live in reciprocity?

Imperfect and often unpracticed in our connectivity, we’ll find the Snoop to our Martha along the way. Learning as we cook in tandem, trust me.e.

Sharing more community practices this week with incredible insight from Ash Kondziela, founder of inclusive fitness non-profit, Prism Moves. Scroll on for more inspiration and if you have ideas on how to jump in, reply back.

This week–eat well and as always,

Stay hungry,
Hawnuh Lee | Founder, Closed Loop Cooking

Winter squash gnocchi.

• Keep showing up, a thread.

• Great hearing friend of CLC, Alexa Gamboa Grand on Along the Same Lines podcast.

• A coffee maker that speaks to my elevated inner child.

• And a repairable kettle that anyone can fix. Finally!

• Making easy, handmade roasted winter squash gnocchi with this vibrant herb scrap chimichurri. (Stay tuned for a Thanksgiving round-up email early next week!)

• All food delivery apps should have a “rescue” option.

• Sophia Roe x La Ligne collab is stunning.

• Appalachia still needs our help! Save your grocery store bags for this effort.

• As looming book bans threaten our right to read, I’m ordering a physical copy of Parable of the Sower, you should too.

Herb scrabs chimichurri.

How to build community with Ash Kondziela of Prism Moves

Interview by Maia Welbel

Prism Moves in Portland, OR is a gym for women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and larger bodied people, and those that want to move their bodies for joy instead of weight loss. In a culture where fitness spaces are so often overrun by diet culture and toxic masculinity, it is a haven of safety and fun. This week, I got to talk to Ash Kondziela, Prism’s founder and executive director, about ditching body talk, making strength training more accessible, and their current favorite protein-packed snack. 

Can you start by introducing yourself and telling us a little bit about how you got to where you are? 

In my past life I worked in corporate America in medical device sales and project management. I did that for 10 years and I got burnt out. Towards the end of my corporate career, I had started doing personal training on the side for fun. Someone who worked at the gym I was going to had said to me, “It seems like this is something you're good at, would you want to do a mentorship to become a trainer?” So I did. And then once I felt comfortable enough doing it, I left my corporate job and started doing personal training full time.

Where Prism comes in is that I had worked in and managed a bunch of different gyms, and I just kept hearing the same stories of women and queer people not really feeling comfortable. And a lot of gyms, especially more expensive boutique gyms, are very cis-het, white, thin, dominated. So you're just not seeing a lot of diversity period. A lot of that has to do with people being priced out, and people just not feeling comfortable in those spaces because it's such a “bro” type culture. So in 2018, after hearing that feedback over and over, I decided I was going to open my own place with the mission of making it someplace where I would want to work out, and someplace I know my clients and friends would want to work out. Prism opened in September of 2019, and of course unfortunately the pandemic happened in March of 2020 and we had to shut down and we were closed for almost a year and a half, but we’ve been working hard to rebuild since then. 

Wow! Okay going back to the beginning of what you said — what about becoming a personal trainer was appealing to you, and what gave you the confidence to make that huge career change?

Good question, in the early days I definitely had moments of thinking maybe I just should have stayed in corporate haha. But I think one thing is that I like being in charge of my own schedule and being in a position of leadership. Like, I'm actually not a great corporate employee even though I realized that probably a little too late. I don’t like working within structures that I don't agree with. Obviously there's still the framework of capitalism that I have to operate in, but being able to make my own decisions was a big part of it.

Clients that I was working with before I opened Prism were already telling me that they felt safe in our sessions — that their opinions and feedback were being heard. And they appreciated that there was no diet talk, no weight talk, no “you have to earn food” talk. That side of the fitness world is not conducive for a lot of people, and a lot of trainers don't think about whether their client might be struggling with an eating disorder before they open their mouths about weight. Or they don’t understand how bodies are just different sizes and that's okay. So it can be really alienating, and if the goal is to get more people to move, then we need make it safe for people to move without all of the other crap.

Now that you do have this space where the explicit mission is to be inclusive and safe in that way, what does it look like to put those values into practice day-to-day?

Part of it, like you said, is putting the mission out really clearly on our website and Instagram so that when people enter the space they most likely already know what we’re about. And a lot of it comes from being very deliberate with only having coaches in the space that are aligned with our mission. So for me, when I’m hiring someone, I care less about coaching credentials and more about whether the person understands what our community stands for and why it’s important. Like, I can teach coaches how to coach, I’m probably not going to be able to teach you how to be the person I need you to be in this space. And that applies to our board of directors as well, since Prism Moves is a nonprofit. That’s another way we’re different from most gyms — we’re able to fundraise and apply for grants to make membership more financially accessible. 

For folks in Portland, I know they can sign up for a free week and try out some classes, or come in to have a conversation with a coach to ask questions and see if the gym is right for them. But for people elsewhere, do you have any recommendations for getting into strength training for the first time, or finding spaces that are similarly welcoming? 

That’s always a tough one. I do think that more and more gyms that are trying to be more cognizant of how they approach fitness, so if there's a location you're curious about, trying to find a time to talk with the owner or manager of the gym about what their process looks like can be helpful to at least get an idea of how they operate. If there's not a great option in your area, there are a lot of really good resources online — apps that you can use and fitness routines that you can do at home to get started.

Another thing that a lot of my clients utilize are more social or recreational fitness groups. Like there's a group here that we work with that organizes outdoor activities for women of color. These days there are more women’s running groups, queer running groups, that kind of thing. So that could be a good place to find community and gain some confidence. And then there’s personal training, which is always more expensive, but for someone who has the resources it can be a great way to begin with a little more attention to detail, and without the intimidation factor of being in a group. And the same thing applies there with making sure you talk to someone to make sure you’re on the same page about weight talk and things like that beforehand. 

Those are great hot tips! Since this is Closed Loop Cooking, I must know what you’ve been whipping up in the kitchen to fuel your workouts lately.

When I want something with a little protein I love making edamame toast. I mash up edamame that I buy frozen, and mix in avocado, tahini, and some spices, and then I spread that on a slice of sourdough or multigrain bread. That’s been one of my favorite snacks recently. 

What beverages do you like to have on hand when you’ve got to be at your desk running your business?

• Coffee with oat milk creamer

• Polar seltzer

• Paris breakfast tea

• Regular water

Great recs! Wrapping up on the topic of connectivity, how can we center community in the coming months to support each other?

We need to build strong networks. I feel like we all talk about community but are scared to act on it. So collaborations, more cross promotions, and sharing of resources. More asking for help. We don’t need to compete, we need to support.

What exciting things are on the horizon for Prism and how best can we support?

Prism has a youth program starting on 11/24. It is five Sundays, 11/24-12/22 from 2-3:30pm. $200 and sliding scale available. This is a pilot program for a bigger youth program we hope to start next year. Prism is a nonprofit and donations are always appreciated. We also appreciate word of mouth and referrals.

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Thank you for giving us a peek into your world, Ash! If you’re in PDX, stop into Prism and try out your free week. Follow Prism on IG at @prismmoves and Ash @asherfallingdown.

The only “turkey” I want this year.

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