Latest news with #UMMA
Chicago Tribune
01-07-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Improvements underway along 10th Street Corridor; ‘Helping to turn it back into what it was with a new vibe'
The Urban Muslim Minority Alliance (UMMA) is expanding the Harvest Market food pantry — which was opened nearly a year ago and designed as a grocery store — and making strides in creating a community center next door. For more than a year, UMMA has increased its presence in the 10th Street Corridor, which separates Waukegan and North Chicago. While work is being done, Executive Director Hamaas Ibrahim said the people who live in the area will have a say in what is done. With the market already well-established, an addition is being built in the space where a delicatessen once stood between the market and the one-time Catholic school, which will house the community center. UMMA has ideas, but Ibrahim said advice is being sought. 'We're going to have a town hall,' Ibrahim said. 'We want to hear what the neighbors in Waukegan, North Chicago and the greater Lake County community have to say. We want to know what they want.' Construction of the Harvest Market addition started on June 16 on 10th Street in Waukegan, with completion planned in August, while work is underway to prepare the community center for its eventual renovation. When done in September, Ibrahim said the addition to the market will be a multipurpose area serving as a break room for the workers, and a place for additional food storage to assure a supply of fresh produce and other food for the clients. Working with the city of Waukegan on the community center at what was once a Catholic school purchased from the Archdiocese of Chicago in October, Ibrahim said UMMA now has a demolition and remediation permit to prepare much of the building for a gut renovation. Planning to keep the classrooms and the gym with its basketball court as part of the community center, Ibrahim said completion is a long-term project. He hopes to start the renovation late this year or early next year, with completion in 2027 or 2028. Once a thriving working-class neighborhood, UMMA is part of the effort to revive the 10th Street Corridor, putting its market and community center on nearly a block of the roadway immediately west of McAlister Avenue. Both Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham and North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham Jr. said they are pleased to see UMMA part of the effort to improve the 10th Street Corridor. During his youth, Cunningham walked or rode his bicycle to work along the roadway. 'The 10th Street of old was a booming business area,' Cunningham said. 'In the last 10 to 15 years, it's struggled with violence and homelessness. UMMA is helping to turn it back into what it was with a new vibe, which will bleed into rebuilding Waukegan.' Early last year, the North Chicago Police Department opened a substation on the south side of 10th Street, which serves as a community center some of the time. Rockingham said the added police presence has benefited both cities. 'I'm glad to see what UMMA is doing on 10th Street to help the community,' Rockingham said. 'They're giving the residents of North Chicago and Waukegan the ability to receive food and be a community. It's a benefit for all who need the services.' Since the Harvest Market opened in August, Ibrahim said it is now open five days a week instead of four, with Wednesday devoted to senior clients. It is open from 2 to 6 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays, as well as from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays. 'When we started, clients could take 15 items a week,' Ibrahim said. 'Now they can take 25 items. They use shopping carts just like a grocery store.' As UMMA starts to renovate the former school, Ibrahim said it is stripping the walls down to the studs to make sure there is no asbestos or mold. If there is, it will be removed before further work is done. 'We'd like to have open gym, and basketball tournaments in the gym,' Ibrahim said. 'We'll have a kitchen for healthy cooking classes. We'll move some of our classes from downtown (Waukegan) to 10th Street. There's a bus stop at the corner, making it accessible for those without a car.' Classes will include career readiness, English as a second language, Spanish — beginning and advanced — Microsoft Office, basic computer use and more. 'The classrooms will be bigger than we have now,' Ibrahim said. 'We'll have yoga and healthy motion classes.'
Buzz Feed
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Viral Korean Cookbook UMMA Resonates With Millions
In case you needed some good news today, people are crying over a cookbook making #2 on the New York Times Best Sellers list, and yes, it deserves all the praise. Well, I should preface that UMMA isn't an ordinary cookbook: it's a mother-daughter passion project of over 100 Korean recipes, but it's also so much more than that. In October 2024, Sarah Soojin Ahn explained the story behind her work on UMMA in a viral TikTok with over a million views: "For a little over a year, my mom has been working on one of the best gifts I think she could ever give me," she said. "I felt so lucky to work alongside her and write the stories for everything she had given me for our new cookbook, UMMA." "I couldn't be more proud of my mom and the work we produced together to bring you guys the best of the best Korean recipes that taste like Umma's home," she continued. "And the stories of a very ordinary life that understands the difference between living and surviving, the quiet sacrifices made for family, and the beauty of the bond between mother and daughter are all heavily present through its storytelling." Sarah's story was incredibly moving, and based on the comments, thousands of people shed tears. After it was officially published in April 2025, it didn't take long for UMMA to take off. On April 10, Sarah posted a TikTok in which she and her mother found out their book made #2 on the New York Times Best Sellers list, and the video garnered almost 500k views. In the video, Sarah and her mother are greeted with flowers and champagne by their editor, who congratulates them on their success with UMMA. "This moment belongs to all of us, not just my family," the caption of the video reads. "It's a celebration of our community. Of people who see the beauty in everyday life, who honor the richness of the ordinary, and who carry so much warmth and heart. The fact that this book resonated the way it has is because of you, and we'll never stop being grateful for that." Everyone in the comments cheered and expressed how much of an impact UMMA made on them. "I have this book sitting in my kitchen," one person wrote. "My mother is Korean and 77 years old and cannot remember her recipes anymore so I'm so excited to start cooking for her." To learn more about the project, I asked Sarah about her experience working on the cookbook. (All I have to say is brace yourself for more tears.) "I know the book is called UMMA, which means mom in Korean, but through working so closely and intimately with her, I feel like I got to know Nam Soon (my mom's name), the person she was before she ever became UMMA," Sarah told Tasty. "In some ways, it felt like I was befriending the child version of my mom. It was both heartwarming and heartbreaking to hear her stories, imagining them like I was right there beside her, relating to her innocence, her youth, and the kind of blissful hope she once carried." "Learning the majority of her recipes was incredibly rewarding," she continued. "I still remember the moment we finished developing the last both just smiled at each other in silence. It felt like a quiet, shared victory." She went on to say, "The most challenging part? Teaching her how to use measuring spoons. Cooks from her generation cook by feel, by taste, and with love (known as sonmat), usually by the handful, so that was quite an adjustment for her. " Sarah also shared how positive the response to UMMA has been. "What's meant the most is hearing how seen and loved people feel," she said. "This book isn't just for passionate cooks (though the recipes definitely scratch that itch if that's you) — it's also a celebration of the working class, of the struggles and sacrifices so many families face trying to make it in America, especially as immigrants. I always say: it's the richness in the ordinary." "It's a tribute to how food carries us through hard times and rejoices in those moments, and to the kind of motherly love that's both universal and deeply rooted in Korean and Asian culture, especially because that's how love is so often shown," she added."I've received overwhelming messages of gratitude from people who grew up like me, from the working class, from Korean and Asian adoptees, and from those who've lost their mothers. That connection has been the most humbling and meaningful part. My mom wants to one day host a Mother's Day lunch for all these people." When she found out UMMA made #2 on the New York Times Best Sellers list, Sarah was shocked. "I couldn't believe it," she said. "Everything is so digital now. You don't physically see books flying off shelves the way you might've in the past, especially since most people ordered [the book] online, and my entire community lives on social media. So hearing we made the list felt surreal at wait, is this really happening?" "But then I saw the outpouring of love and celebration from everyone, and that's when it hit me," she continued. "I felt the support — it felt physically present. I'm just so incredibly grateful for everyone who believed in us and this book, forever. When I shared the news with my dad after I came home from the book tour, his eyes lit up with glee. It was special." To conclude our interview, Sarah reflected on how writing UMMA deepened her relationship to Korean culture. "I've always been proud to be Korean, but writing UMMA helped me connect to my roots on a much deeper level, especially when it comes to understanding my halmeoni (grandma) and beyond," she said. "I began to grasp how much they endured so that people like me could live freely today. For example," she added, "white rice, a food we might take for granted sometimes, used to be a rare luxury. Just one generation ago, it wasn't something easily accessed, and people had to go through a lot just to put it on the table. They had to stretch out this supply of white rice by integrating multigrains into it, a now popular, healthy dish that was once eaten for survival." "Stories like that made me realize how humble and resilient Korean cuisine really is," she continued. "Our food carries the weight of survival and hardship. There's so much soul to this cuisine." Want to try your hand at making delicious Korean dishes while you wait for your copy of UMMA to arrive? Download the Tasty app to browse all of our favorite recipes — no subscription required.
