My name is Elizabeth and I am serving as Community Food Educator at Solid Ground. In my role I help coordinate cooking and nutrition classes for communities throughout Seattle that face food insecurity.

Each class provides participants with an opportunity to learn or improve basic cooking skills, cook healthy and affordable meals, and make informed decisions about nutrition. While it can be difficult for many people to access nutritious food for a variety of reasons, programs like these help people make changes that are attainable in their everyday lives.

In my classes I’ve had participants who come in with lots of experience with and passion for cooking, and other participants who are learning how to cut onions and make pasta for the first time. Regardless of background, each class draws from people’s own personal expertise and knowledge, of which everyone has something to contribute. At the end of each class participants and volunteers sit down to share the meal that they made together. Food is vital to our physical and mental well-being, and community-based classes such as these foster both.