Sonya (neé Katie) Key loves everything about wholesome food! She enjoys creating opportunities for collective return to health through personal connection to nature. With over 15 years of experience in hands-on and out-of-school time education, she weaves trust-building games and songs into participatory growing and cooking workshops for all ages. Uplifting ancestral African, African American and indigenous foodways is primary to her approach.

Sonya was professionally trained in health-supportive raw vegan cuisine at RawSoul of Harlem. She designed a non-traditional culinary education with multiethnic cuisine courses and a French culinary study abroad. She created and ran Sweet Mama’s vegan desserts in a women of color run co-op kitchen before branching out to provide creative personal cooking and private event catering throughout NYC, Westchester and the Hudson Valley.

As a child, you could find Sonya out in nature, the kitchen, library or onstage. Today, all these passions come to life while teaching in Poughkeepsie Farm Projects’ after-school garden clubs, farm-to-school program, community cooking workshops, and Jr. Chefs’ Cooking Club!