Student chefs feed those most in need

Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2006

by Jaime Ciavarra Staff Writer

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Naomi Brookner⁄The Gazette

Hotel and restaurant management instructor Susan Callahan (center) helps students Andrew Meyrowitz of Potomac and Amy Jung of Clarksburg with a béchamel sauce during a class last week at the Universities at Shady Grove.

With several pounds of tender lamb, crates of ripe eggplants and a recipe for savory cream sauce, this university cooking class is set to create a 50-person feast.

But after several hours of dicing, slicing and simmering, the students know that these colorful pans of mousaka — a flavorful, traditionally Greek dish — won’t be served at a high-brow Washington event.

Instead, they’ll be reheated in a working mother’s kitchen, one trying to get back on her feet after struggling with homelessness.

Students enrolled in a hotel management course at the Universities at Shady Grove in Rockville, part of the University System of Maryland, are using their culinary skills to reach out to the community, starting with some of those most in need.

At the end of the day, after they’ve tasted their creations, nine students and the class’s instructor wrap up the leftovers of their tilapia and rice, their jambalaya, or their tuna salad sandwiches and freeze them for the Dwelling Place, a support program for formerly homeless families based in Gaithersburg.

The 17 families in the program — all of them headed by working single mothers — can then gather in their apartments at night to have a warm dinner, with little to no preparation.

‘‘There is a dignity in coming home from a long day of work and knowing there’s a meal waiting for you,” said Susan Callahan, instructor of the class and coordinator of the meal donation program.

The hotel management class is learning to prepare food for large events and has donated several bulk meals each month to the facility since the beginning of the semester.

The students prepare 30 or 40 pounds of food per session and wrap up the dishes in trays to feed families of four.

Elaine Shire, director of the Dwelling Place, said the families have appreciated not only the much-needed meals but also the chance to taste different cultural dishes.

There are 39 children affiliated with the Dwelling Place, and many of the mothers work long hours at service jobs, Shire said.

According to the 2000 Census, 633 families in Gaithersburg were living below the poverty level, and almost half of those families were led by single females.

‘‘The other piece to this is that these families know that someone thought about them and cared about them at this point in their lives,” Shire said.

Many, she said, have also asked for the recipes.

‘‘That’s how you know it’s good,” Shire added.

Callahan, who has been a chef for 25 years, was previously director of the D.C. Central Kitchen, a nonprofit organization that recovers unused food to prepare and deliver to the needy.

Now teaching at the university level, Callahan of Silver Spring came to the Universities of Shady Grove campus this year and has been the brainchild of the class’s meal donation program.

Previous classes threw out the pounds and pounds of leftovers after giving away what they could to friends or professors, said Judy Streeter, the campus’ program director for hotel and restaurant management.

‘‘This is a much better use. One aspect of what we teach is that the community should be a better place because you are there,” Streeter said. ‘‘This fulfills a lot of objectives from learning and service.”

And it’s a win-win situation for the students, too, they say.

Arthur Yampolski, 21, of Bethesda works 50-hours a week at his hotel job while going to school part-time.

‘‘This gives us an opportunity to do something for the community while we’re at class,” he said. ‘‘It’s our way of getting involved.”