Operation Shoestring’s Parent Initiatives: Cooking Classes

This week at Operation Shoestring, we hosted a cooking workshop night for parents in our programs. As soon as the Zoom call started, you could hear the laughter. Over ten participants joined us, and for a moment it was like hanging out on someone’s patio. Everyone was smiling, chatting, and calling out to each other as they stood in their respective kitchens. Even though we were all in our separate households, it truly felt like we were together as parents organized their ingredients and waved to the children popping up on different screens. 

Led by Elena Dent, a registered dietitian and diabetes educator at the Univ. of Mississippi Medical Center, these workshops started in 2019 and are typically a six-week nutritional overview course. This program is made possible by the Parker LifeShare Foundation, which supports many of our programs like our bi-weekly food box distributions. Each Zoom session has an issue related to nutrition like high blood pressure or diabetes, and includes interactive activities and cooking sessions. Dent said she “tries to come up with something everyone likes and then puts a healthier spin on it,” like stuffed peppers or soul food. One objective of the sessions is to explore new topics, “try and get someone to try something new,” and experience ingredients they may otherwise not have picked up in their grocery carts. Participants learn cooking techniques that are not only “simple, but meaningful” and this is a big part of the “why” Dr. Dent partners with our parent program. I asked her if getting to cook delicious food like stuffed peppers is a big “why” as well. 

Dent laughed and said she chose stuffed peppers because Star Pool, Operation Shoestring’s parent engagement coordinator, loves the meal. This recipe is also a flexible one, and Dent encourages parents to “freestyle” their fillings once they have the basic recipe down pat. Many of our parents at OS love to cook for their families, and they enjoy learning new variations of old favorites. Due to these workshops, many parents have told Dent that they’ve become genuinely excited about cooking again since the healthy ingredients and methods taught in these sessions have sparked their creativity. This is music to Dent’s ears, since she cares most about empowering people to feel in control and confident about the health decisions in their lives. One of her goals with this program is to help a person’s inner narrative change from one about shame or aversion to one of a growth mindset around health and healthy eating. “I want people to feel empowered to take control of their health from an eating standpoint,” she says. The Zoom format also makes health education more accessible. These online virtual evening courses now include some community members who previously could not attend due to transportation or childcare issues. Dent is grateful that our workshops could continue throughout this year and enjoys meeting new participants who weren’t able to make the in-person course in 2019. As she pulled up her slide show for the evening, parents shared that they were excited to make the recipe and were eager to see how this healthier version would taste. It was clear that parents had learned a lot from past sessions as they shared with Dent their ideas for cooking the brown rice included in this recipe, and all participants were encouraged to share their experiences using the tips recommend to them before. At one point, parents even gave some staff members some advice on how to improve the nutritional content of dishes! 

Dent believes that these workshops help parents with “a thousand little steps” to have health-driven meals, and doesn’t think asking already busy families to make drastic measures or changes is the way to support them in their health journeys. “I’m here to help people realize we can start where you are, and come up with one or two things to adjust. I’m not trying to put people on a diet. That’s not the goal. It’s to understand and learn more about small health changes that can have a big impact, and that you can take back to your family and your community.” She wants to dispel “the myth that healthy eating is a plain chicken and plain vegetable diet.” The sessions are instead designed to meet people where they are without any extreme or disruptive lifestyle changes. They are also created to be as accessible as possible for Shoestring’s parents. To ensure everyone has the materials to cook, we distribute to each household their own pots and pans, and all recipes cooked in class are chosen based on the fresh produce provided that week for families as part of our community food box distribution. Dent also makes sure to choose some recipes that a child would be interested in trying as well.  “I think this program is needed because our Southern culture focuses on food. From a funeral to a wedding, and everything in between,” Dent says. “We have in Mississippi high rates of high blood pressure and diabetes, which is strongly tied to the way we eat. For a community, it can be helpful to have a dietician that can help them realize we don’t have to cut out all our favorite foods to be healthy. We don’t have to just eat raw vegetables. We can adapt our favorite foods in different ways.” 

Dent says a surprising and rewarding part of the nutrition workshop is that many parents view the sessions as a form of self-care. “Many parents express gratitude for being able to take time for themselves,” she says. It’s been incredibly rewarding to provide families with a moment to connect with each other and friends across the community over food. As the peppers cooked in the oven, it was clear that while the dinner was a tasty reward the real treasure was the friends and newfound confidence in healthy cooking that parents found along the way.