Tamika Dunkley
By Teresa Giordano
Chef, healer, mentor, educator, activist, cultural presenter: Tamika Dunkley invites you to Caribbify your life. Ask her what exactly that means and you’ll get a long and complex answer. At the heart of it is Tamika’s fervent desire for you and everyone she meets to learn to be your best and healthiest self…with some spice added.
After her experience working as a registered nurse and seeing the need and often the resistance on the part of cardiac care and other patients to prescribed healthier lifestyles - seriously, who among us wants to season our food with Mrs. Dash? - Tamika and her husband Martin developed a line of hand crafted spices, seasonings, condiments, and sauces that are… wait for it… low sodium, vegan, non GMO, locally sourced, and yes, flavorful. Seasoned Delicious Foods (SDS) is meant to please the palette and heal the body.
Tamika does not stop at the art of food, or at making food artful. Good food and good health are a right, not a privilege. Tamika and Martin offer weekly meals and groceries to underserved communities. Their non-profit, Seasoned Gives, supports and mentors BIPOC community members who are creating their own businesses.
Tamika’s philosophy is that good food, like art and music, transcends cultural boundaries. Seasoned Delicious in Lake Katrine is a nearly 10,000 foot space that offers a place for foodies, artists, art lovers, music lovers, and even erstwhile karaoke singers to eat heartily, dance, mingle, and share ideas.
There is a lot of hard work and artfulness that goes into cooking, community building and being a cultural presenter. But Tamika is not daunted. She has, and will Carribbify all of Saugerties. This year’s third annual Caribbean Carnival at Cantine Field on August 13th brings together artists, musicians, crafts people and food. And true to Tamika’s vision, it’s an opportunity for people to come together, share cultural experiences, music, dancing, fun, and food.
In a world that too often seems structured to divide us and keep us apart, loving is an art. Tamika Dunkley is well on her way to using every tool in her kit to master it.
