A Pathway of Hope Through Cooking
The Rotary of Dearborn Heights awarded the Dearborn Heights Pathway of Hope Program $5,000 for a cooking class. Each month, Rotary purchased food for each family to make 4 recipes, cooking supplies, and even crock pots for each family. At the end of the evening, families were able to take home the meals and place in their freezer.
Volunteers from the Rotary and the Dearborn Heights Corps interacted with families during the event assisting with preparation and getting to know each other better. Child care was provided but several of the older children opted to work with their parents during preparation. One mom said that it was great because her daughter "wants to do nothing with her at home!" We started with 4 families regularly attending and ended with a total of 8 on the last night. It was an awesome experience seeing the women form friendships and interact with one another. Smiles and laughter were part of the evening.
About the program
The Rotary of Dearborn Heights' Make Ahead Meals Activity (MAMA) was conceived because incoming president sits on advisory board for The Salvation Army. As reports were made by the community coordinator regarding the Pathway of Hope program, the idea of serving a need for these families by providing meal assistance was conceived. The idea was presented to the club as a club activity for 6 months. After determining the need and the commitment for involvement from the club, the project was outlined and submitted for a district grant. The scope was to provide healthy, ready meals for families with limited time/means.
The MAMA project has many parts. At the beginning of the project, Rotarians gathered in an informal setting to brainstorm on how the project would work and created a recipe calendar for the project life. Each month, different Rotarians come together to work on set-up, clean-up and help during the event which lasted about 2 hours. We came to enjoy not only the Rotary fellowship while we worked the event each month but the new friends we made as we interacted with the local family participants. We truly enjoyed serving these members of our community. We also enjoyed an informal dinner each month prior to the event where workers and participants all ate together and got to know each other.
This project took more time and participation than estimated prior to the start. Our members pitched in and contributed in such a way that the participants didn’t realize the amount of effort it takes to pull off each month's event. We were prepared with recipes and ingredients for each family in a timely manner.
Each Rotarian was assigned to 1 or 2 families each month. They helped with interpreting the recipe, finding ingredients, delivering and washing dishes, freeze wrapping meals. Each family prepared 4-6 meals for their own size family to be taken home and frozen for future use. Many of the families brought teenage and younger children with them. One mom told us that her teenager won't do anything with her anymore except for THIS monthly project and that she wouldn't miss it for the world. She and her daughter worked as a team to create the meals and they told me how they make a point to eat together the meals they've created together.
The families participating in this program were chosen because they are enrolled at The Salvation Army's Pathway of Hope program - a year long program aimed at bettering their lives. One night one of the women who came thought that she was making meals for other people in need. She did not realize until the end when we packed up her box that the meals were for her. She has been battling depression since her husband died and literally broke down in tears that someone would do something so nice for her. Another mother said it has allowed her and her daughter to spend more time together. Another mother with 6 children remarked how it is very hard to work and provide healthy meals for her children and that she has appreciated having something prepared so that she does not have to get fast food dinner. Each month as the participants leave with a box full of meals for the month ahead, we realize that the project has not only impacted the beneficiaries but has impacted each Rotarian and their commitment. Our legs and backs ached as we went home but at the next meeting we all talked about how much we enjoyed the project and couldn’t wait to do it again. This project was truly a win-win!