May 29, 2026 Aprons in Action: Skû Náh Café’s John Joseph brings peace to the plate

In Six Nations, just south of Brantford, Ont., John Joseph operates a small four-seater restaurant at 2936 4th line called Skû Náh Café. He and his life partner Jennifer both live with type 2 diabetes; John was diagnosed in June 2025 and Jennifer received her diagnosis just three weeks later.

Living with a diabetes diagnosis 

John has always been interested in food and cooking, but when he received his diabetes diagnosis, he was advised to make significant changes to his eating habits to manage his blood glucose (sugar) levels. He ate fewer fast-acting carbohydrates, such as white potatoes, white rice, white pasta, and also cut out processed foods and treats. He soon saw progress in reaching his health goals, but instead of feeling happy, he felt more depressed. The heavy restrictions were seemingly taking away the joy of eating and cooking. 

At the same time, Jennifer tried to make some of the same changes; however, as a perimenopausal woman living with arthritis and other known body inflammations, she was not seeing the same success. She and John learned that no two bodies are the same and response times vary. Jennifer had to learn to stick with it and keep working on her own changes and needs.

Reimagining recipes 

John researched eating and cooking for diabetes, looking at ancestral eating practices that involved eating local and from the land, rather than convenient and/or processed options. He and Jennifer found alternatives to their favourite dishes, a practice they call “reimagining recipes” for diabetes.
 
Through this cooking experimentation, eating with diabetes became less about what they had to sacrifice and more about possibilities. But healthy, affordable and delicious options were simply non-existent in their community. “We just couldn’t go out to eat,” says Jennifer. 

The experience of Indigenous people

Type 2 diabetes is the result of not enough insulin being made in the pancreas and insulin resistance when the body isn’t able to use the insulin it makes. When this happens, glucose in your blood is not able to enter the cells where it should get used for energy. Several factors impact a person's risk for developing type 2 diabetes, including family history, ethnic background, and other behavioural and environmental factors. After researching the condition, John learned that Indigenous peoples experience diabetes at 2.5 times higher rates than non-Indigenous peoples (Source). He knew that everyday factors that shape health (known as social determinants of health), such as barriers to healthcare, income insecurity and poverty, and affordable access to nutritious foods, and more considerably influence the prevalence of this condition in his community. He also noted how the lifestyle had become too sedentary for regularly eating high-carbohydrate foods like grain and corn from the ancestral diet. 

From vision to action

Once John understood the challenges of finding quick and affordable options that are both healthy and delicious, John and his partner were motivated to fill this need. “I wanted to share our knowledge with the community, because diabetes is prevalent here. I wanted to help surrounding neighbours, villages and towns in Hamilton-Brantford too once I realized it wasn’t just in our backyards, after my partner was diagnosed with the [complex condition],” he says. 

Within months of their diagnosis, John and Jennifer had the idea to open up a small café — one that was more than a business and served a social purpose of providing healthy eating options to members of their communities, experiencing prediabetes or diabetes. In October 2025, Skû Náh Café opened. Says John, “This is the only restaurant in Ontario, and maybe even Canada that is focused on having a diabetes-friendly and focused experience.”

What Skû Náh Café offers

Skû Náh means “peace/of peace” in Skarù-rę, (Tuscarora) and reflects a desire to bring back peace to cooking and eating for the community. While the couple are not dietitians, certified diabetes educators or medical professionals, they bring their lived experience to their menu. 

John’s menu, ever evolving based on the seasons, has been getting rave reviews from visitors. Everything is homemade. He follows healthy eating guidelines, including portion sizes, and provides the essential nutritional information for people with diabetes, while keeping prices comparable to fast food options, making it easier for people to choose healthier options. 
Following a story in The Hamilton Spectator, John and Jennifer received national attention, including endorsements from the medical community and a request for support from members of the Mi’kmaq nation who want to start their own diabetes friendly community restaurant. The cafe has also been given the nod by the Six Nations Health Team and members endorsed the restaurant on CTV News.

A cooking challenge fundraiser

A customer living with diabetes shared the Aprons in Action presented by Manulife cooking challenge fundraiser with John, encouraging him to compete. This new national fundraiser invites people of every skill level to create healthy meals and fundraise on behalf of the more than four million people diagnosed with diabetes in Canada. In exchange, participants could win a chance to cook alongside celebrity ambassador chefs like former Master Chef Alvin Leung at the Toronto gala on World Diabetes Day (November 14). John is already creating some new recipes for the challenge, drawing on his signature style. 

“John Joseph of Skû Náh Café represents the very innovation and resilience that is central to the Aprons in Action cooking challenge fundraiser,” says Nicole Holder-Dulson, Community Fundraising and Events executive director.

As someone living with diabetes, John went from seeing the kitchen as a place of restriction to a place for innovation, adapting ancestral foods to the latest evidence-based nutritional guidelines. He’s a strong contender for sure.

With the growing attention they are getting, Skû Náh Café is now expanding its outdoor space to increase seating. They want the café to be a place where families can dine together, take time eating their food, and enjoy each other’s company over board games or good conversations. 

What’s next?

Plans for a cookbook are on the horizon to bring his cuisine—that includes roasted bison with cedar and juniper, and a woodland medley made of sauteed spinach and mushrooms—to a wider audience.

In a year or so, the business will qualify for Indigenous entrepreneurship grants so it can expand even further, but John says he never wants the café to get too commercial. He wants Skû Náh Café stay true to its social purpose: to bring back peace to cooking and eating, particularly for people living with diabetes. 

Look out for the People’s Choice recipe vote happening from September 2-16, 2026.