Healthy Habits Family Classes

Zakela will host small-group cooking and wellness sessions with underserved families in her rural Florida

community. The workshops will focus on simple, healthy meal and snack ideas using affordable

ingredients that families can realistically recreate at home.

Families will learn basic budgeting

tips for grocery shopping, healthy meal creation and container gardening coaching,

using low-cost materials. Each session will include shared meals, hands-on participation, and

take-home meals and resources families can continue using on their own.

Meet Zakela Mickens

Zakela J. Mickens is a wife, mother of four, community advocate, and someone who genuinely loves helping people. Her passion for healthier living is also deeply personal. After losing her 28 year old brother to stage 4 colorectal cancer in 2015, and learning that she too carries the MLH1 Lynch Syndrome gene, Zakela began looking more closely at the choices she could make to support her own health and the health of her family.

That journey led her to become more intentional about what her family eats, learning how to prepare simple meals, making healthier choices, and even trying her hand at growing some of her own food. For her, gardening and cooking are not about being perfect, they are small, practical steps toward living a healthier life and being more intentional about prevention.