One Woman's Dream and a Young Chef's Knife Carves out a Cooking Class for Esperanza Girls

 

Merit Tukiainen grew up eating moose meat and drinking fresh squeezed black currant juice in Finland.

 

Most of her meals were not only home-cooked, but almost always made with local produce, often from the family garden. Later, in the US, Merit received her master’s degree in hospitality management from Cornell and then had two kids of her own. And it wasn’t long before she came to see how processed foods made US citizens sick and overweight.  This set the table for Merit's desire to help stop this trend in the diets of American children. Several years later at the 2010 Spring GWTK Healthy living event, Merit was inspired to motivate others to join her in her plight; through frequent meetings and a “feast” of energy, an exchange of ideas and small donations for supplies, a curriculum was formed. The icing on the cake— organic and gluten free, of course— was the commitment of a recent graduate of the Cordon Bleau Cooking School.

 

The mission for this effort was born, and is as follows:
Esperanza Cooks – Recipes for Life gives students at the Esperanza Academy in
Lawrence, MA, hands-on cooking and nutritional learning experiences which
promote life-long skills for healthy living. The program benefits the
students, their families, and their community in a fun and sustainable way.

Stay posted for more news! Contact merit2 [at] verizon [dot] net (merit2 [at] verizon [dot] net) if you are interested in becoming involved.  There are MANY ways you can help to really make a difference in the girls’ lives!