Hello Everyone! My name is Abriana Matos. My passion for cooking started at a young age. The capstone program allowed me to create a cultural cookbook and research the access to produce in communities and access to healthy foods. The idea for the cookbook started when my grandmother and my dad taught me how to cook. The cookbook contains some of my favorite Puerto Rican family recipes with a research proportion. As you look through the final product, I hope you make some of these recipes and enjoy the outcome! 

At the begging of the research process, I had many directions, and narrowing down what I wanted to focus on was the hardest thing to do. The cookbook proportion I researched needed to be revised because I memorized the recipes from repetition. The research question I focused on was how having access to produce and healthy food influence a person's overall health and what the factors are. I incorporated the research into the cookbook by emphasizing that access to healthy foods is a privilege that many people worldwide do not have access too.

Throughout my research process, I recognized how there are many different perspectives and approaches to having access to produce and healthy foods. As I was researching and taking notes, I wanted the research proportion to feel that you were reading something other than an extended essay. Narrowing down the focus and the direction I wanted my capstone to go was diffcult while fitting the format for the final product. The result of my research was an article-like essay in the cookbook. The main goal of the research was to educate rather than ramble with an essay. 

The research I conducted was not surprising. I knew there was significant nationwide accessibility to food. The main topics in my essay were access to produce and healthy foods and the factors that restricted people from getting them. I kept asking myself: What else can be done for people nationwide to access healthy food and fresh produce? 

The google document is a draft of my research and the process of conducting research throughout the program.