Mimi DelGizzi worked as the Coordinator since October 2010 and was the point of contact for many of our volunteers.  Please join us in congratulating Mimi and she moves on to graduate school at Tufts this fall.

“I want to say thank you.  Thank you for answering emails and phone calls.  Thank you for being a smiling face at the other end of the table, or kitchen, or classroom.  Thank you for setting up tables, rooms, and schedules.  Thank for you being my fellow “shleppers” of stuff, cooks, nutritionists, and assistants extraordinaire.  Thank you for your input and for being my brain when my own starting getting mushy from four classes in a week.  Thank you for keeping me organized, sane, and calm.  Thank you for making me realize how lucky I am to have found such an organization filled with such dedicated people.  Thank you for being a magnet for the greatest of the great in this city.  Thank you for welcoming me to Boston. Thank you for teaching me that as much as I try, sweet potato fries will probably never get as crispy as I want them.  Thank you for showing me what compassion and love looks like in true form. Thank you for coconut cake, and for lunch walks, and talks and for being some of the friendliest people I’ve ever met.  Thank you for being my friends, my colleagues, my coworkers, and the reasons why making the choice to leave Cooking Matters MA was such a tough one.  I’ve been accepted into Tufts University’s dual degree Master’s program in Nutrition and Public Health, passions of mine solidified by my work with Cooking Matters.  As I start my journey as a student again, I look forward to continuing to work with CM as one of its newest volunteers!  I join the ranks of you all, as an ardent and loyal supporter of this great organization.  So, we’ll see each other again.  When I see you, I’ll wave and we’ll talk about all the amazing things that Cooking Matters is achieving all over this great state. Until then, please don’t hesitate to keep in touch.  You can reach me at mdelgizzi@gmail.com. ”

Amory Hillengas completed her year of volunteer service as an AmeriCorps member on April 30th.  Amory dedicated over 1700 hours of service to Cooking Matters.  We wish her the best!

“I can’t believe that my Americorps year has come to an end. I helped change a lot of lives over the past 12 months and that’s exactly what I signed up for. However, when I think about my experience with Cooking Matters Massachusetts, I will always remember how it changed me. And I don’t just mean my professional development; I mean that my life changed in the way that our classes intend to do.

A couple years ago I was in college where I certainly loved to cook and was on a budget, but also ate Taco Bell at 2am, didn’t think twice about loading up at the burger bar in the dining hall, hardly read food labels and never ate breakfast. I entered this position with community and culinary interests and am now leaving with the nutrition component. I discovered a new way to view food. I can no longer grocery shop without reading labels, looking for whole grains and buying low sodium versions. Over the past year I made homemade granola and chicken stock for the very first time. It was amazing to have those in my pantry and freezer whenever I wanted and know that they were made from scratch. Never in my life have I regularly eaten so many fruits, vegetables and whole grains (oh so many black bean and veggie quesadillas both in class and at home), or exercised as much (you bet I’m including pulling those carts)! I eat a lot less meat now and I want to give a special thanks to Gina Petracca for encouraging me to eat breakfast which I can proudly say I now do every day. I just can’t stop! As a bonus, I even lost a good amount of weight. All these concepts have become a part of me.  So thank you Cooking Matters for a year of changing lives! ”