Food Leaders You Need to Know: Pa Houa Shasky
“Breast milk is the first food that an infant is exposed to. It also has properties that formula doesn’t have, and that can’t be synthesized in a lab. These two things make it the foundation for healthy living. ”
Meet Pa Houa Shasky. Pa Houa is a Health Educator for the Statewide Health Improvement Partnership (SHIP) in Ramsey County and member of the Hmong Breastfeeding Coalition. In this interview, she discusses her background, COVID-19, and how her work relates to food justice in Minnesota.
Amanda Mosborg (AM): Welcome! Tell me a little bit about your background. How did you come to be doing what you are doing?
Pa Houa Shasky (PHS): Thinking I wanted to be a dietician, I got an undergraduate degree from The University of Minnesota in food science and nutrition. Shortly after graduation I accepted an internship at WIC, a federal Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) that provides supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women. After a good experience at WIC, I chose to pursue a career in public health. This led me to my current position at the Statewide Health Improvement Partnership (SHIP) in Ramsey County.
AM: Can you describe SHIP’s mission? How does your work align with food justice efforts in Minnesota?
PHS: The Minnesota Department of Health provides funding to Ramsey County through SHIP to improve the health of the community. Our three areas of focus include increasing physical activity, improving access to healthy foods, and promoting tobacco free living.
Most projects involve some sort of food justice. For example, when I first joined SHIP, I helped out with something called the Healthier Meals Coalition. For around 10 years, we – along with several program leaders from other MN food justice organizations like Loaves and Fishes and Catholic Charities – brainstormed together about making healthy changes to the food they served... without breaking the bank. SHIP provided funds and other resources for the members of Healthier Meals Coalition to make policy, systems and environmental changes to their meal programs.
AM: You are also a member of the Hmong Breastfeeding Coalition, which cares deeply about breastfeeding awareness. Tell us a little bit about that. What does breastfeeding have to do with food justice?
PHS: Breast milk is the first food that an infant is exposed to. It also has properties that formula doesn’t have, and that can’t be synthesized in a lab. These two things make it the foundation for healthy living. By drinking your mother’s milk, you build immunity that helps reduce obesity and food allergies into your young adulthood. Unfortunately, breastfeeding is not commonplace in all communities. The Hmong BF Coalition is a way for Hmong women like myself to support our population from its roots.
AM: How has your work been affected by any of the circumstances of 2020? By this I mean the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others, as well as COVID-19 and the election buzz.
PHS: The pandemic has challenged us to step back and get back to the basics of public health. For example, at SHIP, we have been deployed to work on COVID-19 response and have had to put things like active and tobacco-free living on the backburner. For now, we are focussing on spreading reliable information/education about COVID-19, especially to communities of color.
As a part of SHIP, I co-lead a breastfeeding initiative that plans to allocate funds to the US-born African American population. Before George Floyd’s murder, our goal was to partner with a contractor in the Black community – someone good at community organizing and eager to normalize breastfeeding in their population.
When this summer’s civil unrest started, however, it was clear that it was more important for us to address historical (and current) trauma and healing as part of our breastfeeding initiative. So now we are asking ourselves: how can we make the link between trauma and the importance of breastfeeding?
“For generations, there has been a lack of breastfeeding in the African American population. The reason for this goes all the way back to slavery, when Black women were expected to serve as wet nurses for white infants, and so could never breastfeed their own.”
For generations, there has been a lack of breastfeeding in the African American population. The reason for this goes all the way back to slavery, when Black women were expected to serve as wet nurses for white infants, and so could never breastfeed their own. Today, many of their descendants don’t consider breastfeeding an option. I hope that this grant can change this by encouraging Black women to connect the trauma of 2020 to that of their ancestors.
Recently, SHIP has started conversations with a contractor called DeYoung Consulting Services, a minority-owned business that has provided training, organizational development, evaluation, and outreach and communications services since 1996. Fingers crossed!
AM: What inspires you?
PHS: One thing that keeps me going is knowing that what I do to help communities can have the impact on generations to come. My parents were Hmong immigrants who didn’t have college degrees. Parents always told me to “do good,” but didn’t know anything about the American path to success.
By middle school, my parents could no longer help me with my homework, so I had to seek out programs offered by the government and school systems to help communities of color. I work in public health because I want to do my due diligence and pay it forward.
“One thing that keeps me going is knowing that what I do to help communities can have the impact on generations to come.”
Another thing that motivates me is my team at Ramsey County. When I joined five years ago, I didn't even know what public health really was, but was welcomed by a staff that really understood health and racial equity. In elementary school I was surrounded by Hmong kids.
As I moved through middle school and high school, the professionals and authority figures became whiter and whiter. In college, my middle name was dropped by my professors and peers – and I did nothing to stop them.
Through team development and conversations at Ramsey County, I am able to look back on my life and label situations for what they were: unconscious biases, White fragility, racism, and so forth.
Pa Houa Shasky’s Recommended Resources
Food Justice (Documentary) - Watch here
Food Justice, a 30-minute TV show, is a co-production between Twin Cities PBS and Saint Paul - Ramsey County Public Health. Additional funding is provided by the Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP), Minnesota Department of Health.
Food Justice introduces you to people experiencing homelessness and food insecurity. Food Justice will also introduce you to the shelters, meal programs, and food shelves working hard to provide healthier items for their guests and clients, but need your help making these healthier items more available.
Many people lack access to healthier foods and Food Justice hopes to raise an awareness that all people deserve access to healthier foods independent of race, income, educational background or where one calls home.
Twin Cities Regional Breastfeeding Coalition
Hmong Breastfeeding Coalition
ABOUT PA HOUA SHASKY
Pa Houa is a Health Educator for the Statewide Health Improvement Partnership (SHIP) in Ramsey County and member of the Hmong Breastfeeding Coalition. She has been recognized as an Emerging Leader by the United States Breastfeeding Committee at the 2020 National Breastfeeding Conference and Convening (NBCC).
ABOUT AMANDA MOSBORG
Amanda Mosborg is a student at Carleton College and has been involved in advocacy and research for Slow Fish and Slow Food Minnesota. She examines the intersection of humanities and science, and how environmental policy affects people and the planet. She is an artist, athlete, and journalist. Amanda can be contacted at mosborga@carleton.edu
