Woman of the Year

I had the honor to sit down with Judy Forman, who was recently honored by the State of California as woman of the year. Last month Assemblywoman, Lori Saldaña, honored her at the Women’s Museum here in San Diego. Saldaña developed and managed several educational and technical job skills programs, including a $1.5 million Technology Workforce Development grant for the San Diego Community College district.

One hour turned into the whole afternoon. She talked about everything from growing up in a small town in upstate New York, to her passion in life, people. This is about a woman who is happy mostly when helping others.

Forman says she is the self-appointed Mayor of Golden Hill. Saying Golden Hills after the third time, she said, “Do you see more than one hill?” She is very adamant about her Community. Judy is an activist in social and community issues, but most of all; she feels she is a humanist.

For over twenty years she has been involved with this San Diego community that over looks City College. Forman said she has the utmost respect for education in San Diego and her sister Marcia graduated from City College. Education is very important to her and half of the staff at the Big Kitchen attends City College. When she is at the Kitchen you can see her feed young kids in the community before they go to school, for free. “Children need a good breakfast so they can do well in school”, she said. These kids come back after school and do work around the restaurant, like sweep the sidewalk. It is wonderful to see her with these kids. Judy was a social worker who worked for years in Detroit, and in many ways she is still doing that work here at the Big Kitchen.

Judy, being Jewish, said she feels that she too is part of a minority. She grew up to be outspoken and learned late in life about racism. “I saw racism for the first time when I was in college” Judy has been pro-active all of her life. She was part of the Civil Rights movement in the 60’s and, Abbie Hoffman was her hero. An icon in the 60’s, he was successful at turning many flower children into political activists. I loved her definition of a feminist: “It is a verb meaning women of action. At this point we went out to lunch over looking the harbor. This is a favorite spot of hers. She is a powerful lady with strong convictions who has no problems making her point clear. “If I could do anything it would be to write a book about the Big Kitchen. It is a community within a community. The people here for the last 20-years all have done so much for each other it is unbelievable.” As Judy the Beauty would say, Tres` Bien, Tres` Bien!