''Teach them how to cook, Feed them for a lifetime''

For our NSTP 2 outreach project, we were asked by our teacher Ms. Liza to prepare meals for 150 kids.  This project is somewhat close to my heart since I love kids. Before I went to CCA, I was a volunteer teacher to a summer kinder garden program facilitated by our church. The community where the summer class was held is a depressed area with poor families, malnourished kids, and kids who were not sent to school.

I was only 16 years old then and have over 40 kids from ages 3-7 years old to teach. The experience of being a teacher to young kids taught me the value of education. Since it was the kids’ first time to be taught how to count, to write to color and to read, it was really difficult, the kids can’t afford to buy their own things. They go to school hungry, some with their ‘’best clothes’’ of newly washed shirts but still with rugged slippers. Some kids are siblings sharing a piece of bread for lunch. Most of them don’t know anything. Literally, I was their first teacher. 

It taught me how important it is to nourish kids; they are innocent and can be influenced easily.  If you teach them good things with happy memories, they will remember you up until they grow up. If you show them kindness and love they will reward you with respect. If you show them violence and the wrong way they will grow up with that direction. I still see my students sometimes, the greatest reward is whenever my students still call me ‘’Teacher Joyce’’, they run to catch my attention  to say hello, some I see with dirty clothes as they look for garbage to sell, some selling meriendas for a living. Most of them still don’t go to regular schools.

We were excited to do our feeding program since there will be kids. We prepared Spaghetti, bread toasts, Maja Blanca and Iced tea. Eldrin and I also decided that since the class is on a budget, we will make the cake pops as a donation. It could be the kids’ first time to eat cake pops so we were really excited and happy to do this project.

I will never forget how the kids’ eyes lit up when they saw Sponge Bob in front of them. It was so candid, they are so innocent.  I remember a boy slowly tapped Sponge Bob’s face, tapped it again, and after being convinced that Sponge Bob is facing him he smiled so big. Then the boy slowly copied the mascot’s dance steps and dance with excitement. It was like a slow motion.

It reminds me of myself running and chasing for Jack& Jill’s mascot during a preschool visit. I hugged the ‘’Jill’’ mascot, raised her skirt with wonder ...I love mascots as a kid.

Then I started to observe the kids’ appearance. They are luckier than my students as they have shoes, cute bags, they look healthier and look regularly groomed.

Only a few don’t wear uniforms which could be a good sign. These kids can go to regular schools, and chances are to a private school.

They are less chaotic than my students, a sign that these kids are well fed at home. They are not that hungry though kids are ecstatic in nature.

For our second activity, our group decided to make recipes out of ingredients that could be bought from talipapa and palengke, since we observed that some items in western cuisine are rare finds and not known at household kitchen, might as well do substitutions. We don’t want our nanays to feel like they can’t do the recipe on their own at their homes and we don’t want them to say they’re not familiar with the ingredients so they won’t try the recipe at all, thus, we based our recipes with Filipino ingredients.

We were not able to run practices and test the recipes, so by the first run of our demo we were nervous if the recipes will work. Thank God we brought a portable oven with us, during our demo of our Rolled Oats Crusted Pork Chop, the oats absorbed the fying oil, and then Eldrin decided to do a great move which is to let the pork chop finish inside the oven.

Eldrin and I made that recipe so I felt guilty that I did not even thought of the oats absorbing the oil as it usually do with water and milk. For the rest of the demos we did the same procedure and taught the housewives and teachers culinary terms, basic food sanitation and healthier alternatives for the ingredients

We observed that we had an advantage of making the housewives and teachers interested in our demo since they were able to identify the ingredients at first sight of our MEP’s.  We also osbserved that the participants are asking ‘’Saan kami makakabili niyan’’ as other groups answer in supermarkets or in malls, our answer is always at Palengke, likod ng bahay or sa talipapa. It felt good to share information to fellow women as they say, no one beats the meals prepared by our Mothers.

That day I felt that my expensive tuition in culinary school paid off when a woman on her 60's said our group stunned her and told us that we will go a long way. I'm a pastry major, I never joined savory competitions, never made ''Culinary'' stuffs outside my pastry bin.. I'm a patissier not a cuisinier,and it's just overwhelming coming from a woman same age as my late mother.  I felt the sincerity of the housewives’ gratitude by sharing the recipes our group prepared.

In the end of our activity our group felt we wish we could do more activities like this, it was true that sharing your knowledge could be as fulfilling as teaching rather than just keeping those knowldege to yourself.

''Teach them how to cook, Feed them for a lifetime''

- The Culinary Education Foundation