Did you know that one in five Polack Food Bank clients report living with diabetes or pre-diabetes? Being food insecure – the technical term for not being able to afford the food your family needs – means that you are at higher risk for diet-related illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity. As part of our commitment to improving client health and well-being, the Food Bank ensures that the food we provide is healthy, nutritious and includes plenty of fruits and vegetables. But, a broad array of fruits and vegetables is only helpful if consumed, and for many clients, cooking from scratch with fresh produce is unfamiliar.
To help empower the people we serve to eat well, we hosted a monthly series of cooking and nutrition classes. Topics include how to use spices to reduce salt, properly saving leftovers, meal planning and cooking from scratch. Every class includes cooking and eating a healthy, affordable meal together. More than 30 clients have attended the classes over the course of the year. Many have reported that their eating habits have shifted, leading to health improvements such as weight loss and lower blood pressure.
To close this series of cooking and nutrition classes, we were fortunate to have Josh Furman as a guest teacher to lead the class on canning and preserving food. During the summer and fall, local produce is inexpensive and in abundance in food banks as farmers, gardeners and grocery stores donate it. One of the challenges many of our clients face is affording fresh produce in the winter when it is expensive in the store and less plentiful in food banks. By learning to preserve food now, people can save the wealth of summer for later in the year when it is unavailable.
For our first foray into preserving, Josh taught clients a simple pickling recipe that the class then used to experiment with produce that’s in the Food Bank right now – peppers, cucumbers, beets and squash. Following the simple recipe below, clients filled their jars, covered the veggies with brine and then submerged them in the water bath to preserve the pickles!
Pickling proved to be a very popular topic, and our clients are hoping to expand their repertoire to include canning fruit and making jam in the future.
Recipe adapted from: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-dill-pickles-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-193350
By Jana Prothman Lissak
Skier, hiker, wife and Food Bank Manager are just a few of the things folks call Jana Prothman Lissiak. Jana has a master’s degree in Public Administration and has worked in social services for the past eight years with clients experiencing poverty.
Photos courtesy of Jana Prothman Lissiak.
