Volunteers Share Experience In Cooking Skills, Nutrition

Our team caught up with three volunteers from this session of the Share Our Strength Cooking Matters program in partnership with Indy Hunger Network. This is a six week hands on cooking class for families in our community which helps them shop for and prepare affordable healthy meals. We asked Heather, Jen and Kim a few questions about their volunteer experience and what the program means to them.

Heather is currently taking prerequisite classes to get her Masters in Nutrition. She says that the people who attend each class have a heart for what they're doing and she does as well. She says, as she teaches during class, she feels like she is learning more about nutrition too. Her favorite recipe to make so far? The stir fry, which she also made at home for her family and everyone loved it!

Veggies from the stir fry recipe

Jen learned about the opportunity to volunteer during her last semester in culinary school. She loves that this program gives participants new tools to approach food in a healthy way and find new ways to get the most flavor out of food, to make meals more delicious. Her favorite meal to make so far was also the stir fry because it is an easy recipe to customize, for participants to decide what to incorporate for their families. The stir fry recipe involved a lot of chopping to reinforce knife skills that are learned during class time.

Kim is a long-time supporter of Gleaners, where this session of the Cooking Matters program is hosted. She says she remembers when the kitchen was first added to allow for cooking lessons the pantry. Kim is also a personal trainer, so she knows the importance of good nutrition. She loves how engaged participants are during the class time. Everyone wants to learn and participates in the discussion. She says that with these new skills, it is much easier to incorporate recipes to better manage health and wellness. She couldn't name one favorite recipe that the group made together, but said all of the recipes have been very delicious!

All three volunteers said that Cooking Matters is such a great benefit to the community, through the sheer number of people it has the potential to impact. We are proud to be one of the Cooking Matters program sites.