Operation Frontline

This morning was my first class with Operation Frontline. Operation Frontline is a joint effort with Share our Strength and local food banks throughout the country, the Capital Area Food Bank in DC, in which cooking and nutrition classes are provided to people in low-income communities. The class focuses on teaching people how to make healthy & nutritious meals on a budget. Most of the classes are taught in community centers, schools, etc.

I am a volunteer chef for a new program that the food bank is trying out at a farmers market that focuses on using fresh, local produce. The class is at the Ward 8 market in Anacostia, a tiny market by the Congress Heights metro stop. I had been nervous about the class since I am far from a professional chef and have never had to run a cooking demonstration before. Even so, I thought this would be an amazing opportunity for me to help share my love of food & cooking with people who could learn a lot from the experience.

This class was focused on whole grains (each of the 5 classes has a different food group if focuses on) and so I decided to make homemade oatmeal and whole-wheat pasta salad. When we got to the farmers market we visited the tables and purchased some peaches & blueberries for the oatmeal and veggies for the pasta salad. Becky, the director of the program, started the class off and then handed the rest over to Suzie (the nutritionist) and myself.

The class went well and all of the participants seemed to be interested and engaged the whole time. There were 6 people in attendance, mostly middle age or elderly people from the community. After Suzie did the first part of her nutrition lesson, I began making the oatmeal. I talked about the health & economic benefits of using rolled oats over instant oatmeal while slicing up peaches to be added in. After the oatmeal was done, we divided up the pot, and everyone topped their cereal with fresh, local peaches and blueberries. The highlight was when one woman originally said she usually eats oatmeal with butter said, "This doesn't even need butter!" The recipe was the basic recipe from the back of the oat container, but I also added in about a tablespoon of honey and a few dashes of cinnamon.

I then started the pasta salad by boiling a box of whole-wheat pasta and cutting up the veggies. We used a cucumber, zucchini, pepper, cherry tomatoes, and feta cheese. The dressing was a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, honey, fresh herbs (we used sage, parsley, and leeks, all from the Capital Area Food Bank's organic farm outside the city), salt, and pepper. We were supposed to also put in Balsamic vinegar, but we forgot to bring it. The pasta salad was a hit and numerous people said how they were excited to try the recipe that week at home.

We gave out a box of whole-wheat pasta for all the participants and a $10 voucher for produce at the market. Everyone left with a smile on his or her face and a few people mentioned how they were going to bring a few friends to next week's class.

I was worried that the class was going to be a total disaster but overall it was a huge success. The class went relatively smoothly and Suzie & I seemed to work well together. It couldn't have been a success without the invaluable help of Becky and Betina (the class assistant). The participants seemed happy & thankful for the class and everyone involved seemed to have a good time and get a lot out of the experience. I am so thankful that it went so well and that I was given this opportunity to begin with.

Next week's lesson is on fruit and veggies featuring salsas of the fruit and veggie persuasion!