For Kurt Evans, ‘Staying Busy Keeps You Alive’

The Philly chef and activist aims to bring good food to the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood

Photo: Vernon Ray

Strawberries are scarce in Strawberry Mansion. The North Philadelphia neighborhood borders the eastern flank of Fairmount Park, where a Revolution-era country house gave the area its nickname in the 1840s when dairy farmers moved in and started serving visitors strawberries covered in sweet cream from their cows. Over 180 years, Strawberry Mansion went from a place associated with fresh food to a place suffering food apartheid.

“Besides little bodegas and Chinese eateries, there’s hardly any food up here,” said 35-year-old chef and activist Kurt Evans.

Strawberry Mansion Bridge across the Schuylkill River in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Photo: g01xm/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Amtrak’s rails skirt Strawberry Mansion’s eastern edge, carrying passengers across Philadelphia’s belly and northbound to New York. For the better part of last year, Evans lived in Brooklyn as the culinary director at Drive Change, a nonprofit that trains 18- to 25-year-old returning citizens in culinary arts, but when the pandemic hit and classes went virtual, he began commuting on deflated train fares, Strawberry Mansion flashing through the grimy…