Operation Frontline: Teaching the needy to cook in Bay Area communities

June 22, 2010 10:03 am by Sarah Henry

A couple of Saturdays ago, on a gorgeous sunny day when many Berkeleysiders were likely heading out for a hike, contemplating another coffee, or barely out of bed, I stopped by a cooking class taught at Ursula Sherman Village on Harrison Street, a transitional living facility for the  homeless in West Berkeley.

Sponsored by Operation Frontline, a national program that offers cooking classes to low-income families, the class of eager kids and interested adults was the final in a free six-week series designed to help people living on a little to eat healthy, inexpensive, tasty food.

Starting today, Kitchen on Fire offers their latest round of Operation Frontline classes. This series, serving mostly African American seniors, is full for both participants and volunteers.

Operation Frontline is a program of Share Our Strength, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending childhood hunger. This January, the Pacific Coast Farmers’ Market Association and Fresh Approach were selected to implement Operation Frontline’s cooking curriculum in the Bay Area. “In the six weeks we try to cover a lot of bases — new foods, healthy eating, and how to plan meals,” says PCFMA’s Sarah Nelson, who oversees the program.

What I watched going on that Saturday was inspiring. Yes, inspiring is an overused word. Sorry, that was my takeaway observing a trio of good samaritans, actively engaged in the prepping, cooking, and consuming of nutritious food with families of wee ones. On the menu that day: Freshly squeezed orange juice and make-your-own omeletes chock full of veggies like spinach, squash, and peppers.

So kudos to Johnasies McGraw, Elyssia Schtaklef, and Aaron Hardisty.   “Feeding people is a form of love,” says Kaiser Permanente employee Hardisty, explaining why he volunteers his time. (Kaiser provides grant funds for the classes.) “And I like that this program brings together both the personal and professional parts of my life.”

For recent nutrition graduate Schtaklef, the classes are a way to put her academic training into practice. “I love how the kids are really open to trying new food,” she says. “And how excited they get about making food and eating different dishes.”

Says class chef McGraw, an avid home cook: “This is a no-brainer for me. I love food. I’m interested in food justice and food access issues. It’s a great opportunity to teach people about simple, nutritious ways to eat well.”

And did I mention that volunteers and participants alike look liked they were having a lot of fun making a meal together?

What’s great about the volunteer program (aside from the dedicated volunteers, good food, and worthy cause) is that all participants go home armed with a bag of produce to replicate recipes in their own kitchens.

Want to help out? You don’t need to be a pro chef, trained nutritionist, or cooking teacher. An interest in food and an eagerness to help less fortunate folks eat well will stand you in good stead.

You do need to attend a training session and commit to a six-week class (each about four hours per week).

And, of course, along with whipping up delicious food and helping tiny or uncertain hands use a knife, you need to cheerfully do your share of grunt work like washing dishes and cleaning up.

But, I think it’s safe to say, you’ll leave feeling satiated in more ways than one.

Sign up to volunteer through Operation Frontline.

Attend a training today at Sweet Adeline Bakeshop, 3350 Adeline Street, at 6 pm.

Read the Bay Area Operation Frontline blog or follow the group on Twitter or Facebook.

[Photos: Sarah Nelson]

Sarah Henry is a freelance writer who muses about food matters on her blog Lettuce Eat Kale. Keep up with her food coverage by following her on Twitter and becoming a fan of Lettuce Eat Kale on Facebook.

3 Comments

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  • tizzielish

    Thanks for this post. I am going to volunteer for this organization. I am glad to know about the organizations that are working to bring poor people into the circle of eating better food, food that is not corporate-manufactured.

    I saw an article in The Chron about Grocery Outlet, a store I had never been to before, recently, and I ducked into one yesterday. Grocery Outlet is a bit like those clothing stores that sell manufacturer’s overstock. . . . so most of what they sell is processed, very manufactured food. There is a little fresh produce, but not much. And there are gigantic bags of frozen veggies and dairy so there is a bit of ‘real’ food. But mostly, nonfood passing as food. There was almost nothing for sale in the store that I buy for myself, although I did buy a non-organic ripe papaya, which was probably from Mexico but Grocery Outlet does not have signs telling you where the produce comes from.

    I am relieved to read this article after last week’s interview with the woman who coined the phrase ‘locavore’. I am still irritated that she slammed ‘poor people on the bus’ for spending money on cell phones, her suggestion that they could use that money for better food: she assumed the people she referred to were (1) poor (2) had another land line phone at home, thus wasting money, in her judgment (3) ate poorly (4) made poorer choices than she would make if she were in the circumstances she judge/imagined them to be in. I know that locavore gal is a good person but her unacknowledged rank and privilege, her elitism was rank.

    So thanks for this story. And the lead for volunteer work.

  • http://lettuceeatkale.wordpress.com/ Sarah Henry

    My pleasure, tizzielish. I was surprised to learn that Grocery Outlet is based here — who knew? — and intended on checking one out myself, so thanks for the advance field report. Pretty much as I expected.

    And, with all due respect, I think it’s time to leave Jessica Prentice, aka Ms. Locavore, and her opinions alone. Your point is well taken and documented elsewhere.

    Funny thing is, I suspect you’d find much to like about what she’s doing at Three Stone Hearth and with The Local Food Wheel.

  • TN

    I find the Grocery Outlet an invaluable aid to eating and drinking well on the cheap. One does need to develop a style of shopping selectively (hunting and pecking) to get the best values. There is an art to it.

    Narsai David talks often on his KCBS radio program about the wine bargains he finds there. The Groce Out also gets the over stock from regional breweries that I’d never heard of. (Hawaiian beer?) As usual some are good, some awful. I’m glad to have been exposed to the variety though.

    There are hard core wine lovers who lurk the section buying cases of “finds.” The shoppers are as likely to be from Piedmont as they are from West Berkeley.

    In our own fridge now, we have Canadian Bacon, prosciutto and pancetta all bought at Groce Out at about $3/lb. These are end cuts and oddly shaped pieces that are a bit ugly. But when used in soups and the like, it makes no difference.

    I’ve bought large tubs of pickled herring there at a very good price.

    Once a year, we restock our disaster preparedness kits from the canned foods section. We then give last year’s cans to the canned food drives.

    And of course, we also buy canned chicken soup for those inevitable days we have suffering from flues and colds.

    I find that Groce Out prices their stock at least 30% below the standard supermarket. For instance, the last time I was there, a pound of Morton’s Iodized Salt was $.50. It was worth buying.

    The limitation with shopping at Groce Out is that they don’t stock anything UNLESS they can sell it at a low price. This means that they won’t always have salt, or flour or sugar, for instance.

    It is not a one stop place to shop.