The library is more than just books, and our series with the Milwaukee Public Library —Books and Beyond— showcases that by sharing resources, book recommendations and some cool stuff you might not know about.
Today, we’re visiting the now runs the Cargill Community Kitchen within the makerspace at the Milwaukee Public Library Mitchell Street branch. It’s run by Sharrie Agee who’s been in the food service industry for over 20 years.
Her passion for food and cooking stems from her childhood, learning from her mother and older sister as they prepared family meals. "[I wanted] to essentially be under their wing and learn how they were transform these ingredients to family meals that just became custom in our in our home. But that sparked my passion for creativity," she explains.
This passion led Agee to study culinary & food service education. From there, she's worked in small restaurants to the health industry, travel sector and her own catering business. Agee joined MPL in the spring of 2022, and a large part of her job was initially to rebuild the community that was diminished during the pandemic.
As the Cargill Community Kitchen consultant, Agee says she aims to foster an environment for people to feel safe to be themselves and have the courage to try new things. "Whether it's a new ingredient, or learning about a new concept of food, a new technique on how to transform food — that environment is something that I felt at home [in] and I wanted to transcend that in the library," she explains.
The full-scale community kitchen is the only one of its kind in the MPL branch network to offer food programming on this level, made possible by a partnership with the Cargill Company. Agee curates weekly food programming such as Snack Hack and special events like their Community Meals.
This month's Community Meal on Feb. 22 is called "We Eat to Remember," and is in partnership with poet Dr. Fabu Phillis Carter. Agee is planning on soul food demonstrations that will accompany a poetry reading from Dr. Carter in honor of Black History Month. "I love the creativity of that and also bringing poetry and cooking together," says Agee.
Whether it's teaching attendees how to properly cook rice or make their own seasoning mixes at home as a part of a bigger recipe, Agee doesn't want to overlook what may seem like basic kitchen skills.
"I do want to explore food options that, from my experience, most people may not have tried because this might be the first experience for them right here at the library," she notes. "So some common items I will add in the mix in terms of the menu that is supporting the Snack Hack curriculum, but I do want to continue adding those new experiences as well."
Agee says attendees range from toddlers to seniors depending on the event at the kitchen, but no matter who she is leading she teaches them to "be open to learning and to not be afraid in the kitchen, that it's OK to make mistakes. I literally explain that a lot of recipes were mistakes - that's how they came to be," she notes. "You're not limited with food. There's so many possibilities, and even that is kind of is an understatement."
