Eating Well for the Not-So-Well-Off
STAMFORD ADVOCATE -- Jul 17 2010 -- When money is short and canned and dried goods from a free food pantry are about the only option, health and a good diet do not have to be sacrificed, said Brooke Feder, a commercial real estate broker volunteering with the United Way at Person-to-Person in Darien.
By John Nickerson
Staff Writer
Feder and more than a dozen other volunteers from the Stamford United Way's Emerging Leaders Society passed out 100 bags of food to families struggling to make ends meet because their children are no longer eating school breakfasts and lunches.
The society also set up a recipe demonstration showing Person-to-Person clients how to prepare better meals with food from the nonprofit's free food pantry, which last year provided 12,880 low-income residents with 148,890 meals.
On display for the tasting was the Pretty Summer Bean Salad, Tuna Pasta Salad and Ensalada salad, which were developed by New Canaan nutritionist Lisa Corrado, who also volunteers with the Emerging Leader Society.
Feder said Corrado developed the recipes around what can be found at free food pantries and kept in mind that the people she is trying to reach may be holding down more than one job and also have children, and end up with little time to prepare meals.
Through an interpreter, Person-to-Person client Elis Mendez, 36, of Stamford, said she was looking for ways to improve her diet. In May she was brought to Stamford Hospital with a stomach ulcer and she figured that she needed to work harder to lose weight.
Over the past two months Mendez, who has a boy and a girl, lost six pounds.
After trying the bean salad with her son, Mario, 11, she said, "It's very good. I like it and I want to make this recipe at my home,"
Before she left, Feder brought out a bag filled with almost all the ingredients used to make the Tuna Pasta Salad and handed her a recipe folder written in English containing six other recipies from Corrado.
Feder said the society, which organizes a "day of community caring" outreach event every two months for its volunteers, is also passionate about fighting child obesity. For a little more than an hour Saturday morning, Feder and the other volunteers fed about 50 parents and children while passing out recipe books to anyone who would take them.
"I feel like the people enjoyed it. Part of doing this today was to do something nice for the people here," she said.
Person-to-Person Executive Director Ceci Maher said her clients were extremely positive about the recipes.
Maher said the decision was made to write the recipe books in English to give the children of those with foreign tongues a chance to participate as translator in the kitchen.
"It brings children into the kitchen working with their parents and promotes family building," Maher said.
Staff Writer John Nickerson can be reached at john.nickerson@scni.com or (203) 964-2320.
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