Meet the Founder

Chef Deon Thomas is the founder and president of Inkwhelks Society, a coastal nonprofit organization based on Martha’s Vineyard that leverages Caribbean culinary heritage, sustainable small-scale fisheries, and blue-economy innovation to address rising food insecurity in a tourism-dependent island economy.

A Jamaican-born “Three-Island Chef” with professional roots in Jamaica, Anguilla, and the United States, he has spent more than two decades working at the intersection of food, community, and development, collaborating with fishermen, farmers, and low-income families to convert underutilized coastal species and traditional recipes into affordable, culturally appropriate food options.

Through Inkwhelks Society, Chef Thomas advances an integrated food-security model that links climate resilience, cultural preservation, and local market access, offering practical insights for Caribbean and diaspora policymakers on how heritage food-ways, coastal ecosystems, and inclusive enterprise can work together to strengthen household nutrition and community wellbeing.

Work With Us

About Inkwhelks Society

Inkwhelks Society, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit anchored on Martha's Vineyard. We integrate solutions, heritage preservation, and social justice to address the interconnected challenges facing coastal communities of color.

Through community-centered programs, strategic partnerships, and cultural storytelling, we create pathways for healing, resilience, and self-determination—honoring the slow, steady work beneath the surface that nourishes collective futures.

OUR MISSION

To link sea-to-spoon and farm-to-table practices with the stories, skills, and leadership of coastal communities.

We turn overlooked local harvests into shared nourishment, dignified livelihoods, and living traditions.

Strengthening sustainable food systems through storytelling, heritage, and collaboration.

Our Values

  • Honoring land, sea, and future generations.

  • Centering historically excluded communities.

  • Recipes, rituals, and oral histories as cultural assets.

  • Relationships where everyone benefits.

  • Community-crafted solutions, documented and shared.

  • Providing mentorship, culinary training, career pathways, and leadership development.