Cooking Matters

One of the most rewarding experiences I have had all year has come in the past several weeks.  Beginning in May I become a volunteer with Cooking Matters, an branch of Share our Strength (a national coalition to fight hunger), that provides cooking and nutrition education to low-income adults, children, teens, families, and childcare providers.  Each class is led by a class coordinator, volunteer chef and nutrition instructors as well as class support members.  My role has been to act as the nutrition instructor for an adult class held in Koreatown. 

Working with this program has been incredible.  Cooking Matters provides all the instruction, food, materials and supplies.  Each class is designed around nutrition and culinary themes meant to help the participants develop skills to better cook, buy and provide healthful meals for their families. 

It is incredible to think of all that we have covered in the past weeks, including: MyPyramid (and MyPlate as soon as it was introduced) and the different food groups, reading food labels to help make the best choices at the store, learning about and tasting different vegetable and grain items the participants have never tried before, taste testing different dairy options as well as answering the many questions posed by the group.  We also discussed meal planning, shopping with a list and budgeting, and this was just in the nutrition segment!  In the kitchen our awesome chef taught the participants (and sometimes me) how to create fantastic, nutritious and affordable meals as well as tips and tricks for cooking with less salt, sugar, and fat.  At the end of each class the participants receive a grocery bag filled with all the ingredients needed to recreate the meal at home for their families. 

Everything culminated this past week when the class took a field trip to the grocery store!  It was a great opportunity to put to practice everything we have talked about, such as looking at food labels to make the healthier choice or comparing unit prices to find the most affordable option.  The activity for the day a “$10 challenge” in which each participant was given $10 to buy all the ingredients needed for a healthy meal for a family of 4.  It was so fun to see what they bought and hear about the delicious meals they were planning to prepare.

Next week will be our last class and it’s hard to believe how the weeks have flown by.  There have certainly been challenges, such as the fact that I am the only Spanish speaking volunteer in a class where over half the participants don’t speak English……  Teaching a lesson plan in a foreign language is much different than holding a casual conversation, luckily the participants have been amazingly patient.  Even so this class has so much enthusiasm and are ready to learn each day.  They truly are looking to improve the health of themselves and their families and are looking not just to gain information but to put it to practice.  Each week they share what they made the previous week and how they might have adjusted the recipe (used different veggies, different proteins, etc) to make it work for them and their families.  What an inspiration it has been.

Working with Cooking Matters has been an incredible experience and I hope that I will have the time to volunteer once again when I am in Chicago (this program can be found in most major cities, including Seattle).  I would encourage anyone to volunteer, even if you don’t have a culinary or nutrition background.  In addition to helping others learn, you might just pick up a thing or two as well.

I Was Hungry….

I was hungry and you formed a humanities club and discussed my hunger. Thank you.

I was imprisoned and you quietly crept off to your chapel and prayed for my release.

I was naked and in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance.

I was sick and you knelt and thanked God for your health.

I was homeless and you preached to me of the spiritual shelter of the love of God.

I was lonely and you left me alone so you could go and pray for me.

You seem to holy…. So close to God.

But I am still cold, lonely, and very hungry.

…. to the windy city I go …

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was waiting to hear back from dietetic internships that I had applied to for next year.  Much of January was spent applicationing, February waiting, March interviewing and in April…..  Matching with Loyola University Chicago! 

This program was my first choice so I was certainly excited to be matched with it.  I will be completing my supervised practice as well as taking a few Master’s classes.  It has a community nutrition and public health focus and the rotation sites are in downtown Chicago which will provide for an urban and diverse experience.  After the internship I will be eligible to sit for the RD exam (finally!) and can either finish my Master’s degree there or transfer those credits to another school.  VSC finishes up in July and I will have about a month back in WA before moving to Chicago to start at Loyola in late August.  While I plan on making the most of every day I have left in LA I am happy to know that I have a definite plan for the coming year.

the power of service

Last weekend at the Religious Ed Congress I was reminded, in an incredible way about the role that service should play in the lives of Catholics (and people of many other faiths).  Jack Jezreel, the keynote speaker on Saturday morning, spoke very specifically about the integration of service with the parish community.  In short, he talked about how it is not enough to simply gather as a Church family, but we must also be sent forth to love and serve the community.  In his words, “gathering is for the Church, but the Church is for the world.”  While it is important to come together and worship it is also necessary to move beyond this and also do something.  One thing he said that really stuck with me is that perhaps a reason the Church is losing members is because it is not asking enough of them.  Catholic social teaching is an incredible piece of our faith which reminds us that we too are called to respect and demand respect for our world just as Jesus did.

His talk had us on fire.  Easy to see given that we are more than halfway through our year-of-service.  We chose to be here in Los Angeles working with the poor and vulnerable, working in the image of St Vincent de Paul, St Louise de Marillac and countless others who walk before and behind us.  This year has meant a lot of things for me.  But most importantly it has reinforced the need to love and serve others.  Before I knew it was important but often found studying or social gatherings taking priority in my life and thus did not do as much as I could.  I know that it is not possible to be involved in everything, but I think I have seen the incredible impact of sustained service with a group or organization.  My hope is that after this year I can find one or two groups or organizations that I am really passionate about, such as Meals on Wheels or Cooking Matters, and really commit to being involved.  I truly believe that if every person found something, no matter how small, and gave even just a little bit of their talent and expertise it would truly make a great difference. 

So I do realize that in a way this might come out of left field a bit given that I haven’t really talked about service and how it has impacted me much on the blog.  In many ways it has made such an impact that I have found it difficult to put all of my thoughts and emotions into words.  Hopefully I will get around to it more, but until then will leave you with a quote from St Vincent de Paul: "To love the Poor is to love God the right way; to serve them well is to serve Him well; to honor our Lord, we must imitate Him."

Also if interested here is a link to the majority of Jezreel’s keynote, please read if you have the time.  It’s a bit lengthy but full of incredible ideas, inspiration and passion. 

a new direction

There are so many things I could post about, however I never feel like I have time to do them justice.  I begin posts and then weeks later come back to them when too much time has passed, or don’t even start at all because I am waiting for the day to come when I can spend an hour putting all my thoughts together.

This is not working.  I think I am going to have to start a new direction.  Brief snippets, of thoughts or ideas, are better than nothing.  So much has been going on that I would like to share.  I feel like I have hardly talked at all about service or growth, both of which I have experienced much of this year.  I would like to, so hopefully this will be a little step forward.  Thus, here is a really random assortment of what has been going on in the past few months…

1.  Work has been incredibly busy, but very fulfilling.  Up through January I had been growing more dissatisfied with my job, feeling as if I wasn’t using my talents to serve as fully as I had hoped.  However after a big girl talk with my bosses (and incredible support from my mentors at the hospital) I have moved in a new direction where I get much more (like daily) patient interaction and am working on projects that directly benefit the patients and staff.  This year so far has completely reinforced my desire to be a dietitian and my unique experiences are allowing me to grow personally as well as professionally.

2.  Along the work lines, Meals on Wheels is still as fun as ever.  I have reached a point where I feel like I have a genuine relationship with each of my clients.  The past few weeks I have had new volunteers coming with me so they have been seeing my clients instead, but I am just so happy to be able to share the program with them.  Working in the kitchen is also ridiculous, but it’s a fun environment to find myself in once a week. 

3.  I’ve had a lot of visitors recently which I have enjoyed.  Slowly they have helped me work through the long list of places I want to experience in LA before I go.  I try to show my guests a little different side of the city than they might see on a typical vacation, whether it be riding the bus through Boyle Heights or exploring the sights of a not-so-well-maintained downtown.  I welcome any and all visitors, as I love a little taste of home and I love showing people around my adopted city (at least for the year).

4.  The Staples Center has been the gathering place for two of my favorite recent outings.  Despite a tough loss, I so loved watching the Cougs play at the Pac 10 tournament.  Good game, Allez les Cougs!  In addition, a mere two days later I was back at the Center watching JUANES(!) at an incredible concert.  I have loved this artist since I first discovered him in a high school Spanish class and could not have been more excited about seeing him in person.  Not only do I love his music, but he was such an energetic and passionate performer and had super sweet graphics.  Totally worth every penny. 

5.  I’ve mentioned this before but one of the things I absolutely love the most about LA is the incredible diversity.  I feel so lucky to work with such an array of characters and backgrounds.  In February we learned how to make tamales from Amos & Holly’s co-workers.  There are so many different ethnic neighborhoods in the city and I really want to visit as many as possible. 

6.  Along those lines we have also been going out of our way to get to  know the downtown area a little better, through happy hour.  There are some great spots (cheap!) spots in the city and I can’t wait to find even more of them.

7.  I spent the early part of the year writing essays and completing applications for next  year.  Currently I am in the interview process.  Please keep me in your prayers, I may know in the next few weeks what I will be up to…

8.  Things are going really well here but one thing I feel like I am missing is a lack of a Catholic community.  My housemates are incredible, spiritual people.  However, coming from the incredible experience I had at the Newman Center at Wazzu I am beginning to realize that while spiritual friendships are incredibly valuable I also need specifically Catholic relationships to relate to slash help me grow in my faith.  I will be on the hunt for a Young Adult group in the area… I don’t know what I can really do in a few months, however I feel like it is something I should seek out to at least see what I might find.

9.  This weekend was spent at the 2011 LA Religious Ed Congress.  Over 40,000 Catholics descended upon the Anaheim Convention Center to attend workshops, worship and grow in community with each other.  It truly was a blessing to be able to participate in such an experience.  I attended some great workshops and feel like it was a good chance for me to get some of the Catholic interaction I have been craving these past weeks. 

Okay so that got things caught up a bit, though there is still so much that goes on.  As I said, I will try to update more often, even if it is brief (which this totally did not end up being).  Overall I just feel so incredibly blessed to be having this experience and am so thankful for all the support I receive from family and friends. 

The Great Outdoors

While there are many things that I love about the city, there are many more that I love OUTSIDE the city.  The fresh air.  Vegetation.  Wide open spaces.  It’s funny because most of the time when I am going about my daily life I don’t miss these things, however as soon as I am out there experiencing them I feel a sense of peace and calm that I really feel no where else. 

Beautiful view of the Palouse taken this summer from Kamiak Butte

I haven’t really written much about a few experiences that we have had since the fall began but I suppose that late is better than never (especially considering that basically I have had this entire post written for months, just never posted).  I have added a few updates of what we have been up to recently….

In October we took a “whale watching” boat ride to Catalina Island thanks to a great deal from Living Social which included an all day trip from Newport Landing to the island and back.  Along the way we saw Common, Rizzo and Bottlenose Dolphins, as well as a Finback Whale!  I think my favorite was the Bottlenose Dolphins because they were so playful, swimming right up next to the boat and them jumping in the wake as if they were playing.  It reminded me of swimming with the dolphins in Orlando a few years ago.  Because we saw so many things on the way there (according to the captain it was the best viewing day in months), we didn’t have much time on the island.  We did however make the most of the time we had to go for a mini-hike along the rim.  It was beautiful and I certainly would love to go back to Catalina sometime while we are here to go hiking and camping. 


In November several of us headed to Echo Mountain, just outside of Pasadena, for a great hike.  The weather was perfect, really warm and sunny, and it was an excellent day to be outside.  After initially heading in the wrong direction we split up and my group made our way back to the actual trail.  The hike itself wasn’t too difficult, just a windy steep climb up the mountain.  I loved chatting about our hopes and dreams for the future as we hiked.  At the top there were the ruins from an old railroad (still not sure how it got up there), a fancy hotel, and other odds and ends.  I always love seeing glimpses of the past and so this was a great reward after our hike.  Looking out from the top you could see past all of the city-suburbia-land out to the ocean.  The air was clear and fresh, just as my spirit felt.  There are several more hiking places around here so hopefully we will be checking out more of them. 


In December I was back in WA for Christmas!  Thank goodness it wasn’t too snowy and cold.  One of my favorite activities was biking along the Chipman Trail with Mom and Bri.  The air was crisp and there was just a small bit of snow and ice on the ground leaving some fun obstacles along the way.  We biked to Moscow and back and I was reminded once again of the beauty of the Palouse.  Of course there are prettier places than along the highway but seeing the snow covered hills reminded me that I really do appreciate where I grew up.  On our way back Dad met up with us to finish the ride home and it was nice to be out and active all together.

Now I am back in Cali and could not be more appreciative for the warm sun.  Sad as it is, my mood is really affected by the weather and I already feel a sense of joy and light that usually doesn’t appear again until much later in the year.  Last weekend I walked down to the park by our house and spent a few hours lying in the sun while working on applications for next year.  It wasn’t a huge excursion by any means, but it was comforting for me to find green grass and blooming flowers right in the midst of the concrete jungle I live in.  Just 5 minutes away is a simple retreat and I hope to take advantage of it in the future. 

Reflecting on these past experiences has reminded me that God makes his presence known in such a variety of ways and for me nature and the outdoors are such distinct reminders of Him.  I must have looked up at the bright blue sky dozens of times today, each time clearly recognizing the glory of this world and of God in the clear heavens above.  My goals for the coming year include taking more time to be outdoors…. A refreshed soul can only enrich the work that I do here in that I can give of myself more freely for the service of others.