Melrose resident Eric Michael Thomas is building his business, Chef Doula LLC, tackling the twin challenges of maternal health and nutrition in the Bronx.
The Chef Doula brand marks Thomas’ first foray into entrepreneurship while drawing upon ancient wisdom about caring for pregnant and postpartum mothers.
“This is something that’s been practiced in homes since the beginning of time,” Thomas told the Bronx Times.
During the pandemic, when Thomas became jobless and at times homeless, gradually realized he could bring his own business to life. He had worked in both restaurant kitchens and preschool classrooms and recognized the appeal of combining nutrition with family services.
The Chef Doula concept actually took root years ago, when Thomas was growing up in California with a single mother who experienced two miscarriages. While she was recovering, he started cooking to help out around the house.
“I saw how much it actually helped her, as far as her mood and ability to continue on with daily responsibilities,” he said.
Today, Thomas is training to become a certified doula, currently as an apprentice with Brooklyn-based Ancient Song and is earning an associates degree in culinary arts at Kingsborough Community College. He also completed several entrepreneurship programs, including the Good Shepherd Services Entrepreneurship Business Development Institute, SUNY Bronx Educational Opportunity Center and NYCHA Food Business Pathways initiatives.
As the Bronx faces a maternal health crisis, marked by high rates of maternal and infant mortality and preterm births, the Chef Doula hopes to fill gaps in support that can allow some women’s needs to go unaddressed.
Thomas said he is waiting on Medicaid certitfication for his business — a key step, because doula and nutrition services should not be only for the wealthy, Thomas said.
Even in a place as diverse as New York City, holistic birth centers are few and far between — and the Bronx doesn’t yet have one — leaving “nowhere near enough access” to the kind of work he does, he said.
With few holistic care options, Thomas said childbirth can be “commercialized,” creating an “unhealthy space” where the process is rushed in hospitals and women’s wishes are not respected. The Bronx has seen several such cases with women of color, including the 2020 death of Amber Rose Isaac, who died during childbirth at Montefiore Einstein hospital shortly after posting on social media about receiving “incompetent” care.
As of now, Thomas said he can only work with Ancient Songs clients who pay out of pocket for his additional services. But he envisions a much more inclusive model of in-home cooking and meal prep to support anyone in any place, even in homeless shelters, using a commercial kitchen if necessary.
Further down the road, Thomas said he wants to open a combined culinary hub and birth center — or perhaps several — to serve as one-stop shops for everything families need before, during and after pregnancy.
“That’s the goal, getting more people into not necessarily having a private chef but nutritional knowledge and support,” Thomas said.
Treating food as medicine, the Chef Doula can adapt doctors’ suggestions and support for conditions like diabetes into delicious recipes that boost each person’s nutritional intake.
For Thomas, this involves a lot of soups using homemade bone broth, with his favorite dish being mushroom risotto.
Combining grains, vegetables, chicken broth and aromatics, “It’s kind of a balanced meal in one sitting,” he said. “I recommend it in large amounts.”
For Thomas, food is a natural way to provide comfort and bring people together. Through his chef and doula work, he said he hopes to create a more collective, supportive community around the principle of “being a better neighbor.”
“I want for people to even view the term ‘family’ in a different way,” Thomas said. “When you’re a community, you’re a family.”
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
