Cooking up Kindness

How would you like to make the world a better place? Join me in an altruistic project and we will make our corner of the world a little better.

“A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.” – Amelia Earhart

When I was a child, Lent, the period before Easter marked an important time. It was a time to give up something to better understand Christ’s suffering and prepare for Easter. Giving up candy or chocolate seemed like a really difficult task. Even though I don’t think I had candy that often, it seemed significant. As I got older, this significance waned. Although, some years it really meant something to me, other years, not so much. Over time, I found that doing altruistic things brought me closer to my intention than giving something up. However, it was often difficult to figure out something I could do for six weeks that would make a difference, (although really even the smallest acts of kindness make a difference to somebody.)

Then, five years ago, an idea for Lent came to me. I could combine my passion for healing through healthy food with an act of service for Lent by making one meal each week and giving it to someone in need. At the time, I had joined a wonderful Facebook group called Buy Nothing – a group that fosters a sense of community through gifting things to others in the community. I fell in love with this group. Not only did it build a sense of community, but it also created an environment of reuse rather than disposal which fit well with my commitment to sustainability. Buy Nothing was the perfect vehicle for gifting my Lenten meals. 

So my Lenten Project was born. For the past four years, each week of Lent, I have made a healthy, nutritious, vegetarian meal and offered it up on Buy Nothing to anyone who needed it. Like home gardeners planting an extra row for the food pantries, I began by making an extra portion of the meal I was making for my own family. Eventually this grew into making a meal to feed a family of four each of the six weeks of Lent.

Over the years, I have provided approximately one hundred meals to a variety of people in my community. There was a single mom who had a newborn baby and was so grateful to have a home cooked meal… a nursing student who had no time to cook or shop… a homebound person with MS who was wheelchair bound… a family facing underemployment with several children to feed… a woman unable to shop or cook while recovering from an illness… and so many others. Sometimes I get to meet the recipients and other times I just leave the meal by the door. There is one family I have provided a meal to every year. I don’t make rules about who I give the meal to; I just post it on Buy Nothing with a note about my project and ask if there is anyone who needs a meal or if someone knows of someone who needs a meal. It gets a little tricky when there are several requests for a meal. I will try to defer the people I could not help one week to the next week. Occasionally, if I have the ability, I will make a second meal that week.

This project has brought me so much joy. It feels good to know that your act of kindness is appreciated and that you have helped someone in need. Cooking healthy food is something I have always done for my own family. It’s wonderful to be able to share this with others. It is very well received in my Buy Nothing group and always elicits sweet comments. 

Occasionally people ask what they can do to help and kindly offer to supply me with ingredients. While this is so generous, what I would like more than the ingredients, is others to join me in making meals. I would love people from my own or other communities to join me in this project.

Would you consider joining me this year in this Cooking up Kindness project in your own community? If Lent doesn’t resonate with you, just do it for the joy of giving or to pay it forward.

Not only do these meals provide free food for someone who doesn’t have the time, energy, or money, but they are also filled with healthy ingredients that promote wellness. I use as many vegetables as I can without scaring away people! Meal recipients benefit from not only filling their bellies, but also from the host of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients in these wonderful plant foods. Eating a variety of plant foods is correlated with a healthy gut microbiome. A healthy gut microbiome promotes both mental and physical health.

Would you like to make a difference in someone’s life?

This year, I am reaching out to anyone who wants to join me. I will provide recipes, shopping lists, and suggestions for posting and packaging the meals. One of the hardest parts of this project is deciding what to make. By establishing a menu and shopping list, the planning is done for you making it easier for people to join me in my project. All you have to do is buy the ingredients, make the meal, and find a recipient. Sure, it takes some time and some money, but the payoffs are huge when it comes to knowing you are making this world a little bit better, one full belly at a time. And if you cannot commit to making one meal each week, join me for any part of the six weeks you can. Make one meal or make all six. It is still going to help someone and every little bit of good we can do in this world makes a difference. You may even make the meals for yourself and provide your family with the health benefits.

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” — Aesop

Ten Good Reasons to join me:

1. Makes you feel good – acts of kindness boost oxytocin and dopamine, chemicals our bodies produce which increase feelings of wellbeing
2. May increase the amount of veggies you are eating
3. Builds connections in your community
4. Learn to make a few new recipes
5. You’re making a meal anyway so double the recipe – one for you and one to share
6. It’s nice to get positive feedback  – the meal recipients are so appreciative
7. Decreases pain – helping others is believed to release “substance P” in the body which acts like an endorphin and relieves pain 
8. As a side benefit, you might get a boost from the compliments from the people who see you doing it or see your posts
9. One good deed almost always inspires another
10. Not only are you feeding people but you are also improving their immunity and their overall health

Are you up for Cooking up some Kindness this year?

Will you join me in making one meal a week for six weeks in March and April? If you cannot commit to doing the whole six weeks, that’s fine, just do what you can. Even one meal will help someone in need. Although the basis of this project is Lent for me, it can be purely a humanitarian project for you. You do not have to be Catholic or religious at all. This is about caring for others in your community.

Some Basic Guidelines… 

Lent begins on March 5^th this year and culminates just before Easter. I will be making and gifting a meal each of these six weeks. This year the Sundays beginning each week of Lent are as follows.

• March 9
• March 16
•  March 23
•  March 30
•  April 6
•  April 13

Feel free to make and gift the meal any day of the week. There is no set day you need to make the meal. I typically try to have mine made by Wednesday each week, but it varies based on my schedule. In general, the more notice you give, the better response you may have but this is not always true. Sometimes my biggest response has been for last minute meal posts. Even if you can’t schedule ahead of time when you will have time to prepare the meal, just make it and post it. People will respond. If you have a Buy Nothing in your area, try posting on that. 

Ideas for finding people who need a meal:

• Buy Nothing in your community
• Other local Facebook groups
• Ask friends and family if they know anyone who could use a free meal
• Check with your church
• Check with your food bank
• Check with senior centers

This might be a great project for Confirmation students or other students with a service requirement, maybe even a high school senior project.

The nitty gritty…

About the meals: The meals are vegetarian because eating more plant foods is good for everyone and the planet needs more people eating less meat. Also, abstinence from meat on Fridays is a tenet of Lent. This meal could be the one day a week a family eats meat-free and may be the start of a healthy habit. Meals contain mostly vegetables, legumes, and grains. I use as many organic foods as possible, especially for the veggies with the highest residual pesticides (see the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen). I usually make the meals gluten free or with a gluten free option. I often make them dairy free with the option to add cheese or butter on the side. Do any or all of these for your meals. Again, do what you can.

Packing: When it comes to packaging my meals, I try to reuse containers from take out food or that other foods came in. I create a little stash of containers throughout the year that I know will be useful. I often reuse glass jars from pasta sauces or to gift soups and chilis. I reuse aluminum pans or plastic take out containers or cardboard bakery boxes, etc. and make every effort not to buy new. When absolutely necessary, I have purchased aluminum trays that can hold salads or trays of food that can be easily reheated. You can also ask friends or people on the Buy Nothing site to set aside some containers for you. Do what works for you, but try to be sustainability-minded.

Delivery: I package everything up and put it in a paper grocery bag or a cardboard box. I include a note stating what is in the meal and any assembly/heating instructions. Then I deliver it to the address provided or an agreed upon meeting place. Most times, I deliver it to the door to cause the least amount of inconvenience for the recipient. Note that when asking for addresses on Facebook, use Messenger to maintain privacy. You can also have people come pick up the meal or meet at a convenient location, if that is your preference.

So are you up for an adventure that will fill bellies and hearts including your own?

I hope you will join me in this humanitarian project. Look for the schedule, recipes, and shopping lists in my next posts. And please let me know if you are thinking about doing it or if you have any questions. I would love to hear from you. Thank you in advance to anyone who joins me in Cooking up Kindness this year.