Cooking Matters Massachusetts
Providing nutrition-based cooking classes to low-income families since 1994
Volunteers Hilary Lyne and Karen Andrew with participants
In Gloucester, A Student Becomes the Teacher
by Gina Petracca, AmeriCorps member
It was week five of our Cooking Matters for Adults course at The Open Door in Gloucester. Ann, one of our participants, was animatedly speaking with our two course instructors – Hilary Lyne and Karen Andrew – when I overheard the phrase “won’t be at class next week”. Immediately I joined the conversation. Why was Ann going to miss our final class? Her anticipated absence was due to a final presentation she had to give for another course (as part of her GED completion). “What is the presentation about?” I asked, sad that this would be my last class with Ann. “Everything I’ve learned from Cooking Matters,” Ann replied.
Ann then proceeded to tell me how, before Cooking Matters, she thought “healthy eating” meant eating gross-tasting food. But what she realized, even after our first class, was that healthy food can taste delicious, be quick and simple to cook, and that making healthy dietary changes is actually quite easy. Ann was so surprised and delighted by everything she was learning from Cooking Matters that she wanted others to know about it, too. She wanted to educate as many people as possible about healthy cooking and eating and how fun and delectable both can be.
We definitely missed Ann during our final class (and unfortunately she is not pictured in the above photo because of her absence). But at the same moment we were making Black Bean and Veggie Quesadillas, Ann was teaching others how to make healthy choices.
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