Alicia McCabe Massachusetts Director

 Began in 1993  Taught a group of families how to prepare tasty, healthy meals on a tight budget  Has grown to serve over 17,000 families each year since 1993

 Cooking Matters serves a diverse audience of low-income families  Most are enrolled in Food Assistance Programs (SNAP, WIC, etc), free and reduced school meals, and/or a food pantry

 Cooking Matters team consists of a volunteer chef, nutritionist, and the participants  6 week program (1 class/week)  Each class includes a nutrition education, cooking all together, and time to eat together  Participants need to attend at least 4 of 6 classes to graduate at the end

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 Help end childhood hunger  Teach families how to prepare foods that are healthy and taste good while on a budget  Teach families how to shop in a supermarket ◦ How to tell when produce is ripe ◦ When buying in season produce can be cheaper ◦ When buying canned and/or frozen products may be cheaper

 Updated August 2012 ◦ Oversees whole program ◦ Manage budget and fundraising ◦ Liaison to national Cooking Matters team

 Teaching the classes ◦ Watching people learn ◦ Teaching how to better care for themselves and family  Variety of work ◦ Not just a “desk job” ◦ Work with a variety of people in different way to help end hunger

 Amount of paperwork ◦ Expenses, site insurance, budgets  Grant writing ◦ Tedious and time consuming  Amount of effort put in to unsuccessful classes

 Chefs  Employees (such as Jess)  Directors of our partnering community based agencies  Volunteer class assistants

 Oversees ◦ Eastern MA manager ◦ Central/Western MA manager ◦ Educational Outreach Coordinator ◦ Administrative Assistant  Supervises ◦ culinary and nutrition interns.

 Be aware of what is happening in the community ◦ Nutrition, hunger, health, and policies  Adapt programs according to needs  “Sell” the program to financial supporters

 National fundraising entity  Raises money to distribute through grants to hunger relief agencies (i.e. food banks, soup kitchens, etc.)  Cooking Matters program funded by American Express

 Operating costs of almost all the Cooking Matters programs were absorbed into anti- hunger agencies like local food banks who have a requirement to provide nutrition education  The funding for the program comes entirely from local revenue like corporate sponsors, foundations, and government that is secured by the Massachusetts staff.

 Alicia creates the budget with guidance from the national Cooking Matters director and the finance team in DC.  Fee for service-- It costs about $4000 to put on one 6-week class if you include the cost of overhead, groceries, travel time, staff time, etc  Sliding fee scale—they won’t say no to an organization who wants the classes but doesn’t have the funding ◦ Asks for at least SOME support (grant money?)

 Funding ◦ If there is no money it often gets directed somewhere else

 Cooking Matters was mainly concerned with ending childhood hunger  To end childhood hunger you need to help the people who are taking care of those children  Cooking Matters now offers classes to children, mothers with children, teen mothers, families, and adults in order to reach every age group and make it possible in every aspect to end childhood hunger

 When agencies contribute to the cost, it allows Cooking Matters to then reach more people with the resources we have. It also creates a more dedicated “buy in” on the part of the agency. If they have put up money for the class, they will then (hopefully) be more eager to have a successfully partnered class. They will encourage people to come, be on time, etc.