Mia Ormes-Dalton holding one of her nutritious dishes. (Photo: Solomon Ormes-Dalton, Age 9)

When Mia Ormes-Dalton was expecting a baby, she planned to cook nourishing meals for herself. She had over twenty years of experience as a chef and knew how to do it, but when the time came it was a struggle. She created Tribu, a prenatal and postpartum meal delivery service, based on her own experience. Every dish is packed with things that keep a new mother healthy.

“I prepare very nutrient dense foods and deliver them, so whether you’re prenatal, postpartum, have a health challenge, I have specific recipes that I come up with, and I deliver it,” said Ormes-Dalton.

Soups are a good way to deliver nutrients and so they are a specialty in the Tribu catalog. When Ormes-Dalton starts to cook, she is working with fresh vegetables, fruits, and some nuts- all alkaline. She also uses ancient grains. And while the label “cooking alkaline” is new, her approach is also traditional.

“All of my flavors are flavors that you would find somewhere on the African diaspora,” said Ormes Dalton.  “Gumbo, traditional soul food, or pot licker- that broth that you cook the greens in is called the pot licker,” she continues.  “I have a Carribean inspired soup that is a ground provision soup, which is typically delicious and wonderful starch and root vegetables, but I use okra, squash, and kombucha squash base.” She has recently added a West African soup. She says she uses the flavors in the diaspora and celebrates them, while also being gluten free and made with quality ingredients.

Ormes-Dalton sees the value in collaboration and connection — she’s worked with Christa Barfield and FarmerJawn, presenting food demonstrations. She also teamed up with Northwest Learning Hub to teach food prep classes, vended with Franny Lou’s Porch, and created virtual seminars with Sistah of the Yam. She’s been referred to clients of Asasiya Muhammad, a local midwife, for food bundles after birth. Many of these connections came from the weekly neighborhood storytime that was hosted by Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee and Books where she met mothers doing all kinds of work in the neighborhood and beyond.   

Ormes- Dalton connects and collaborates with her community through health, but she understands that the definition of healthy is so vast.  “What I think is healthy you might not think is healthy, what’s healthy for you might not be healthy for me, there’s no cookie cutter way to define what healthy is.” 

She knows the main objective is fresh food, and plans to keep sharing this belief in Germantown.