Nutrition Workshop

Meg Cooper, Heather Laughman, Vicky Joseph, 
Usha Swamy, Mary Parsons, (seated) Karen Stewart
and JoAnn Slezak

Karen Stewart of Bridge Communities, an ONS collaborator, and Vicky Joseph, founder of Families Helping Families in Naperville, met with members at the ALCW headquarters on June 1 to present information on the Nutrition Workshops they run for their Bridge families in Naperville. Maureen Hegarty and Maria Kim also attended.

After the meeting, JoAnn Slezak and Mary Parsons did some hands-on volunteering to learn more about nutrition workshops. Read their report below.

JoAnn packing meals 

We attended the Nutrition Workshop organized by Bridge Communities and Families Helping Families on Saturday, June 4 at Knox Presbyterian Church in Naperville. Sixteen families had been invited but unfortunately there were five no-shows.  There were probably in excess of 20 volunteers as well as high school student volunteers who provided childcare.

A volunteer dietician gave a one hour presentation on “Eating Healthy on a Budget” which was very interesting and generated plenty of interest and questions. This was followed by a demonstration of making a healthy smoothie.  The families were then divided into groups and spent approximately 10 minutes at each of four demonstration tables. They were shown how to make pesto stuffed pasta shells, tuna noodle casserole, enchilada pie and chicken cacciatore. We manned the table for the pasta shells so got the chance to interact with all the families. After this, the families and volunteers sat down to eat a meal together. This was a taco salad which had been prepared by the volunteers during the day.
 

At the end of the event, each family was given a blender and some snapware items. They also took home with them dishes containing four portions of each of the four meals they had seen demonstrated. These meals had been prepared by the volunteers on Thursday and Friday. We had also attended the preparation session on Friday morning along with another group of 10 volunteers.

Other helpers from the community