Mitch Bloom

Mitch graduated from NYU’s College of Arts and Sciences in 2008 with a BA in philosophy, French, and nutrition. At Gallatin, he studied obesity education and nonprofit management. “Nonprofits provide services to the public for which I firmly believe that market and government are not equipped,” says Mitch. He interned with FoodFight NYC, an organization dedicated to changing the way teenagers think about food and giving them the tools to take responsibility for their eating habits. The internship was instrumental in his professional development and in the application of what he learned in class. Food as it relates to public health, he observes, is a quintessential interdisciplinary topic. He studied management at Gallatin in addition to public health, politics, psychology, sociology, and education because, according to Mitch, “understanding the determinants of health disparities is not the same as knowing how to manage an operation that addresses them.” After graduation from Gallatin, he served in the Peace Corps, working on a community health project in Togo, West Africa. In 2014, Bloom brought his appreciation for the food culture of West Africa back to the US when he founded Woézõ West African Cuisine. Woézõ (“way-zoh”) means “welcome” in Ewé, a West African language with origins in Togo, Ghana, and Benin.