What was once an empty brick wall on the corner of Neponset Avenue and Minot Street has been transformed into a mural created by the Dorchester artist Tran Vu that speaks to “feelings of food.”

Last Thursday (June 8), a crowd gathered in a tent under the rain at the Harbor Health Food Pantry to celebrate Vu, a native of Vietnam who grew up in Dorchester, and her creation.

Said Ami Bowen, the vice president of marketing and community engagement at Harbor Health: “Art is universal. It was really important for us to work with a local artist and have something that was really representative about what people’s feelings of food are and feelings about being a part of the community and asking for help with food.”

Vu’s specialty is creating art that organizes and facilitates activism through themes of identity, justice, and belonging. 

The mural on its wall is one result of Harbor Health’s decision to use funding from a city grant to turn the area outside their office into a community space where residents would feel welcomed. Specifically, they hoped to connect with members of the Vietnamese community who utilize the center’s resources. 

When Vu was asked to create her mural, she decided to return to the pantry that she and her family visited throughout her childhood. She spoke there with participants, the majority of whom are Vietnamese, about what they appreciated about the pantry and what they wanted to see in the future.

“I started with three focus groups at the beginning of the year just to hear more about their experiences of accessing food here,” Vu said. “And from there is when I started brainstorming ideas and came up with the design.”

The mural seeks to illustrate the importance of having healthy and accessible food, with a central question. “I know in my family every time I walk in the door they ask, ‘Did you eat yet?’ And I know for so many other families as well, that’s such a common theme. So, I wanted to do that, to have a message that really resonates when they see this,” Vu said. 

To successfully communicate the message to as many people as possible, Vu worked with the city of Boston, Harbor Health Center, and the Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW) to decide what languages to include in the mural. The answer was six, to represent and welcome the diversity of the community. 

The art also showcases the relationships that exist among those who access the food pantry.  “It’s not just individuals, but the elders, mother and daughters, even staff workers here, but then also father and son, too,” said Vu. “Accessing food is such a need that it should be a human right.” 

While it’s exciting for her to see her work showcased publicly, Vu was not the only person feeling grateful during last week’s event. As attendants snacked on traditional Vietnamese food and listened to music, several members of the focus groups spoke to the crowd. One of them, Lan Nguin, a Dorchester resident who left Vietnam and moved to the neighborhood in 2011, had this to say:
“I have come and received the food for myself, and my family and I’ve found the food is very much suitable to our ethnic groups. The service is great, at the beginning the lines weren’t so pretty and all that, but eventually everything has come into order, so there are no complaints.” 

Amanda Mastrangelo, Harbor Health’s program manager of community health initiatives, said the mural showcases the organization’s commitment to welcoming the community. Even though there are often language barriers, everyone who visits the site can see themselves within the mural.

“I think it’s so needed in so many communities, and especially Boston, for community members to see themselves,” said Vu. “For this mural to be truly inclusive and accessible is just really, really humbling and also an honor to be the creator behind this.”