#Throwback Thursday: Cooking Matters Toasts to 20 Years in Seattle

‘Tis the season for nesting, and for many of us that means cooking—either for entertainment on a rained-in weekend (dinner included!), or as an effort to cut costs now that holiday gift buying is back on the horizon. For Throwback Thursday this week, we’re honoring a program that has satisfied both of these cravings and more in Seattle for 20 years. Held at Solid Ground, a Wallingford-based antipoverty non-profit, Cooking Matters classes offer low-income adults, youth and families the opportunity to polish their kitchen craft and also learn nutritional and budgeting skills.

Formerly known as Operation Frontline, Cooking Matters has been operating nationwide since 1993 as part of Share Our Strength‘s national No Kid Hungry campaign. When Cooking Matters was seeking a lead partner in Washington in the early nineties, Solid Ground, who had a lot of energy and established expertise around addressing food and hunger issues at the time, seemed like a natural home, according to Solid Ground communications director Mike Buchman.

“Solid Ground has a 40-year history of addressing food security in this area,” he says. And through the years, “we have helped develop some of the specific curriculum units with Share Our Strength.”

Today, in a six-week series, classes strive to equip low-income families with the skills, knowledge and confidence to prepare healthy, affordable, tasty meals at home, as well as teach participants tips to stretch their food funds and maximize the benefits they receive through public assistance programs, like SNAP (food stamps) and WIC (Women, Infants, and Children). They meet at 60 community sites in the Seattle area, including Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) and Southwest Youth and Family Services.

Children crowd to stir for their supper in a 1999 family class; photo courtesy of Solid Ground

How it works: Each week, a volunteer chef and nutritionist (supported by a Solid Ground Cooking Matters staff member) guide participants to make two quick, healthy, affordable recipes, and engage in a nutrition activity—such as examining the sugar content in 10 common drinks (Frappuccino, Gatorade, etc.), and discussing sugar’s effects. At the end, each participant gets a bag of groceries to take home to prepare one of the recipes themselves. Groceries are all donated by local Whole Foods Market stores and Charlie’s Produce, distinguishing Solid Ground as the only Cooking Matters partner in the country to have all its ingredients gifted.

While Cooking Matters operates in 45 states, Solid Ground is still the only lead partner in Washington, and according to Buchman, they have seen much success.

“The program works,” he says. “The response of participants is overwhelmingly positive. It helps them change their attitudes about cooking and nutrition. It’s an empowering experience for people.”

Participants agree. “Now I introduce more vegetables on the plate,” says Veronica Lopez, a nursing student at South Seattle College. In particular, she  prepares more salads and spinach now, and uses less sugar and grease, preferring olive oil.  Furthermore, “before I ate a lot of white bread, and now I eat it with [whole] grains. The girls [her daughters, Jessica (15) and Wendy (13)] like it—which is vital, she points out, because “I eat what they eat.”

Shopping has also changed for Lopez’s family. She says her family now eats before going to the grocery store, and they also drink more water now—cutting out soda (“maybe once a month,” says Lopez), flavored water, and sports drinks, which they have learned have sugar.    

A new approach to grocery shopping was also a big takeway for Angel Coria, an electrician. “What I learned is that if I have a list of what I really need, I’m not going to spend too much money—like when you gave us the $10 gift card [on the Week 5 grocery tour]. I used to get home and be like, ‘Why did I even get this?‘”  His wife Norma and daughter Isabelle (12) joined the grocery tour with him Week 5, and now Isabelle reminds him how buying fruit in bulk is cheaper than buying a little at a time like they used to do.

Volunteer nutrition instructors break down the food pyramid (talk about throwback!) in a 1999 class; photo courtesy of Solid Ground

So how has Cooking Matters changed in Seattle these last 20 years? First, it has grown substantially—its number of participants has almost doubled in the last five years alone. Compared to 340 participants in 2008, 507 participants (adults, teens, kids aged 7-12, and families) completed classes in the greater Seattle area in 2013. It has also started expanding to satellite sites throughout Washington—four so far, with more interest all the time—and it’s currently developing curriculum for people with diabetes. Finally, Cooking Matters has started offering cooking demos at Pike Place Market and the Mexican Consulate. Check out upcoming demonstrations at Pike Place (431 1st Ave) on November 6, November 18, December 4, and December 12 from 11 a.m. to noon, geared toward preparing tasty, budget-friendly holiday meals.

With its growth and new ideas, however, Buchman says the “overall thrust” of the program remains the same as when it started in 1994, maintaining its combined cooking, nutrition and budgeting focus, and strong role of volunteers. It sounds ready to go for 20 more years.