Meet Deb: Volunteer Nutrition Ambassador

Author: Paul Morello, Feeding America
Deb Meet Deb: Volunteer Nutrition Ambassador

Volunteers are the lifeblood of Second Harvest. Every hour they generously donate feeds more neighbors facing hunger. Today we’re delighted to introduce you to Deb, a volunteer nutrition ambassador in The Kitchen at Second Harvest. She was recently recognized by Feeding America for inspiring cooking class attendees to live healthier and more delicious lives. We bet she’ll inspire you, too. Enjoy.  

Since she retired six years ago, Deb has been a volunteer nutrition ambassador in The Kitchen at Second Harvest.

But, she was actually an ambassador for good nutrition and the importance of healthy produce for years before becoming a volunteer.

“I’ve had a garden that has provided my family with our fresh fruit and vegetables for probably the last 30 years,” Deb said. “And, I always attribute that my daughter likes broccoli to the fact that she was always in the garden with me, eating raw broccoli.”

As a volunteer nutrition ambassador, Deb supports students who visit the food bank’s hands-on cooking and nutrition education program in The Kitchen. Like she did with her daughter, Deb helps expose students to food and recipes they might not otherwise have tried.

Deb cooking and opening a steaming pot
Deb cooking and opening a steaming pot

“[As a volunteer] we help food bank staff with the clients who come in and go through the program. At the same time, we’re preparing some kind of meal with them,” she said. “We get everything prepped and we support the clients while they’re actually making the meal. I enjoy the role a lot, working with clients to help them learn that cooking can be very simple, and encouraging them and helping build confidence in the kitchen.”

In addition to building confidence, The Kitchen program is a critical way the food bank is teaching neighbors in the Spokane community about nutrition, and food as medicine. Students who take the free classes learn to cook a new, healthy recipe each week in the food bank’s teaching kitchen. Afterwards, they take home a bag of food with the ingredients for the recipe to make at home.

For example, on a recent Thursday, a group of eager students of all ages was learning how to cook lentil tacos.

“Washington as an agricultural area is very rich with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, and Second Harvest benefits a lot from that through agricultural rescue. So those ingredients are coming to us all the time,” Deb said. “With the lentils, we’re teaching folks about a locally grown product that you can create a very nutritious meal out of and can be good from a budget perspective.”

Nationally, Feeding America is working to address factors that impact food insecurity, including health and nutrition. In fact, 93% of neighbors surveyed in the 2023 Elevating Voices: Insights Report, agreed that “food is medicine,” and said the movement to end hunger must be rooted in improving access to nutritious food choices that meet dietary needs and prevent and manage diet-related diseases.

Deb in The Kitchen
Deb in The Kitchen

Programs like The Kitchen at Second Harvest are doing just that. The food bank is working with a local health care partner on a 12-week nutrition research study to increase neighbors’ access to healthy food choices. Participants with diabetes take cooking classes at The Kitchen, receive weekly diabetes-appropriate food boxes and then follow up with their health care provider afterwards.

“I think it’s key to the overall health of the community, because a lot of our issues are probably due to poor nutrition which leads to disease,” Deb said. “And I have talked with clients through the last six years who have benefited from that improved nutrition. They have reduced their medication on diabetes, they’ve lost weight, they feel better. I think that is a huge service that Second Harvest is providing. And the teaching kitchen gives us the resources to be able to do that.”

Interested in volunteering or attending classes in The Kitchen? See what’s cooking at https://2-harvest.org/the-kitchen/

We’re just getting started

We’re always cooking up new ways to fight hunger and strengthen our community. See the impact in local communities and how you can be part of what’s next.

Read more stories

We’ve got a feast of stories to share with you! Keep reading to discover how our community is savoring every moment and connecting through the food they create.

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