No Kid Hungry Blog

Bloggers Get Involved at ConAgra Foods Foundation Cooking Matters Boot Camp

Posted by Salma Bahramy on Monday, February 7, 2011

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blogger boot campA couple of weeks ago, I joined 11 bloggers from across the U.S. who convened in Dallas, Texas, for a bloggers’ boot camp hosted by the ConAgra Foods Foundation. Ok, there wasn’t really any exercise involved. It was more of a philosophical boot camp; a two-day jam-packed immersion session into Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters program, designed to give the bloggers information on childhood hunger and tools to try and tackle the issue within their own communities.

Cooking Matters is a Share Our Strength program dedicated to helping families at risk of hunger by teaching them how to prepare healthy and affordable meals. With the help of volunteer culinary and nutrition experts, Cooking Matters courses provide practical, hands-on instruction that empower its participants to make the most of their limited resources. The idea behind the boot camp was that each blogger would emerge from the session armed with the fundamentals of Cooking Matters and how the program helps fight hunger. Each blogger would then participate in a Cooking Matters course in their community and chronicle their experience.

Led by ConAgra Foods Foundation’s Steff Childs and Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters Director Janet McLaughlin, the boot camp kicked off with an ice breaker – “Why does cooking matter to you?” As I listened to all of their answers to that question, I realized the driving commonality amongst the room was that each blogger was fiercely passionate about making sure our kids get the healthy foods they need.

We learned about some of the staggering hunger statistics in Dallas and the surrounding community, through a visit to our local Cooking Matters lead partner, the North Texas Food Bank. Texas has the second highest rate of childhood hunger in the United States, with nearly 1 out of 4 kids who don’t have access to the food they need to lead active, healthy lives. One of the ways the North Texas Food Bank works to close that gap is by offering families a sustainable solution in the fight against hunger, through their Cooking Matters classes. Since 1996, the North Texas Food Bank has reached more than 2,445 participants throughout 245 Cooking Matters courses.

Some of the other items on the boot camp agenda included a site visit to the Trinity River Mission where our bloggers joined a children’s Cooking Matters course. I overheard one of the kids jokingly tell a blogger, “you’re not doing it right” in reference to preparing a veggie quesadilla (that day’s menu). Talk about feeling empowered with knowledge! We also trekked out to a local Wal-Mart to take part in a Shopping Matters tour; a guided grocery store tour that teaches low-income adults how to make healthy and affordable choices at the supermarket. Throughout the boot camp, I think we all realized the challenges that families across the U.S. face in providing consistent and nutritious food with very limited resources.

Our bloggers were certainly up for the challenge, however and have signed on to help us spread the word about important programs like Cooking Matters that are a driving force in the fight to end childhood hunger in the U.S.

February 7, 2011 | 1 comment(s) | Tags: Cooking Matters

Comments

1 reader comment so far.

To really make an impact and end childhood hunger in the US, aspects of the Shopping Matters and Cooking Matters programs could be put online. Many in need live in outside the major metropolitan areas where your tours and courses are given, and to participate it's necessary for a mother to have transportation and child care. Truthfully, we could all benefit from these programs and if more of us were educated about them we could pass along that knowledge to those not 'in the system'. I know many working mothers who barely get by. It's about the children.

Posted by Jeanne Miller on February 8, 2011

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