Food for Thought: Quy Danh Finds Healing in Culinary Arts

Quy Danh, a Culinary Arts student and Catto Scholar at Community College of Philadelphia, hopes to someday support people struggling with food insecurity. Food— and its holistic properties and ability to bring people together—is at the heart of Quy’s personal story and is what brought him to CCP in the fall of 2023.

“Growing up, we didn’t really have much,” Quy said. “Food was always essential. And seeing my younger siblings go without food... I would give them my share so they would have enough to eat.”

Quy was born in Thailand to a Cambodian family and has been in the United States since the late 1980s. A middle child of five, Quy was often responsible for his two younger siblings growing up. His parents had to work multiple jobs to support their family. As soon as he was old enough, Quy also began working to help provide for his family.

“Since we’re a first-generation immigrant family, I grew up watching my parents working one to two jobs and not coming home often, and my eldest sister usually watched everything,” Quy said. “I guess when I was young, I took it upon myself to work at an early age. I worked in middle school through high school and right after high school, too.”

Working long hours and having to care for his family ultimately led Quy to a difficult place, both emotionally and physically.  

“I got introduced to drugs around 2011. It was always around me, and I didn’t want it at first. Then I guess peer pressure kicked in,” Quy said. People who he worked with in the corrugation industry introduced him to methamphetamines.  

“I was overworking myself, over-exhausted and I needed something that could keep me up. And that was the best choice right there,” Quy continued. “At the end of the day, it really took a toll on my body.”

After a while, Quy realized his lifestyle wasn’t sustainable. He decided to seek help and found reprieve at John F. Kennedy Behavioral Health Center in Center City. It was one of his therapists there who encouraged him to try going back to school.

"I thought about it, and I wasn’t sure if I was going be good enough, since it had been 20 years since I last went to school.”  

But, he said, “It got me thinking more about my life and what I want to do. Since I never really thought about myself. For the most part, I only thought about other people. I was looking at myself like ‘Man, what are my goals?’ I had no clue what I was doing or what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go. But I knew that I loved food.”

Throughout his recovery journey, Quy leaned on food and its healing properties to help himself get to a healthier place. He found himself researching holistic food and began preparing nutritional meals for himself.

“A couple months later, I was back to my original weight. And I felt like that could be a calling,” Quy said.

Since becoming a student at CCP, Quy has been active in the community, on campus and off. He is involved in the College’s Center for Male Engagement and with Catto Scholars; he regularly helps out at Chosen 300, a shelter close to campus that offers fine dining-style meals for folks in need. “I want to learn how to work in that type of area because maybe one day I'll open my own community kitchen,” Quy said.

As for what’s next for Quy, he said he’s taking it one day at a time and hoping to transfer to Walnut Hill College or Lincoln University to continue his education in Culinary Arts and Hospitality after graduating from CCP.

“I was in a pretty bad spot, and I ended up using food to recover. I would like to do something like that, make something that would help people recover from their trauma or disease or addiction,” Quy said. “Food is something that brings people together.”

Food is also what brought Quy to CCP, which he described as a life-changing decision. It takes courage to take control of life in new ways, and that’s exactly what Quy is doing now. CCP is proud to be a part of his journey.