Class teaches culinary skills, serves women’s shelter

Aug 30, 2023

Aug 29, 2023

SLICE AND DICE — Lisa Williams, center, culinary director for the Urban Mission and Martha Manor women’s shelter, instructed class participants Josea Bishop and Joe White as they dice onions and bell peppers. -- Christopher Dacanay

STEUBENVILLE — Donning aprons and gloves, three participants in a culinary training class offered by Urban Mission Ministries cooked a fresh meal for residents of the Martha Manor women’s shelter Monday.

The free, five-week class session is taught by Lisa Williams, culinary director for the Urban Mission and Martha Manor shelter, who led this session’s three participants in prepping and cooking beef stir fry for the shelter residents. Williams chooses a meal card containing a recipe for each class, and the meal the participants cook will be served to the residents.

“When we do the culinary class,” Williams said, “I teach the students how to prepare the lunch and the dinner. So, the residents are here, and we serve them.”

It is an opportunity for class participants to serve the residents, single women or women with children who have had to seek shelter. In addition, participants are led to develop culinary skills and achieve Ohio Person-In-Charge Certification in Food Protection — through online food safety training organization StateFoodSafety — for which Williams is a certified instructor.

Williams said the training “gets people’s foot in the door” for future culinary employment. Furthermore, individuals who receive the first level certification can seek a higher level of certification for manager-related responsibilities. Certification is required by the Ohio Department of Health to educate personnel about proper food safety and prevent foodborne illness.

This is the fourth culinary training session Williams has offered, with sessions typically attracting between four and six participants. Class participants come from various backgrounds, including shelter residents, whom Williams teaches fresh meal preparation skills using food pantry items.

The classes, which occur Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for five weeks, cover hands-on topics like cooking, prepping, freezing, serving, table etiquette, sanitation, safety and knife skills, Williams said, adding, “Anything that pertains to the kitchen, we do it.”

A short break period splits different five-week class sessions, Williams said. The next session, following this one’s conclusion, will begin in early October.

The class will be joined on Thursdays by Audrey Haught, Jefferson County Ohio State University Extension program assistant for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education. SNAP-Ed, Haught noted while visiting this session’s first class, is a free nutrition education program funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service for low-income individuals.

Haught, through a partnership between the OSU Extension and the Urban Mission, teaches class participants for an hour about nutrition according to the MyPlate plan, created by the USDA.

“We talk about building a better plate, eating more fruits and vegetables, shopping and budgeting and knowing how to read and use nutritional labels,” Haught said.

Also, Haught said, the OSU extension provides healthy recipes through USDA’s CelebrateYourPlate.org.

Williams said she will take the class participants with her if she has a catering event to do, which allows participants to gain experience cooking for and serving in a banquet-style environment. An upcoming retirement dinner the class where they will help in September, Williams said, will offer the participants experience and some reimbursement for their services.

In addition to cooking lunch and dinner almost every day for the shelter, the 37-year cooking veteran Williams cooks for the Steubenville Kiwanis Club on Tuesdays, having formerly cooked for the Steubenville YWCA, Rotary Club of Steubenville and Martha Manor when it was still a nursing home — the Urban Mission took ownership of the building in 2021, bringing Williams back on board as the cook.

Currently, Williams’ classes are limited by some space restraints, but she hopes to open the classes up to more participants once the Urban Mission opens a new location in the plaza on North Seventh Street. The new location, filling the plaza’s former Kroger building, will utilize 21,000 square feet of open space, said the Rev. Ashley Steele, executive director of the Urban Mission.

Partially funded through grant funds and community contributions, the $4 million project is a little under halfway funded, Steele said. However, the Urban Mission has drawings and a contractor ready for the first of three phases, which is awaiting supplies in order to move forward. Steele said the first phase, which will feature an industrial kitchen, community open space and “pay-what-you-can restaurant,” will hopefully open late this year or in early 2024.

Also, Steele said, the first phase will have a kitchen incubator space that local entrepreneurs will be able to rent to use for getting their cooking businesses off the ground. This will all be in addition to Williams utilizing the space for more culinary classes with increased participant occupancy.

Steele said the Urban Mission is “delighted” that Williams is using her gift of cooking to serve others, and the organization is excited for Williams’ next steps with the culinary training classes.

Williams said she was glad to have more help in the kitchen from the class participants, who came from various backgrounds, but each had some experience in the kitchen.

Josea Bishop signed up for the class as part of the Thrive in Steubenville program, meant to empower and educate aspiring business owners. Bishop, who has been cooking since she was 8 years old, said she is in the process of bringing to life her catering business, Bishop’s Daily Blessings.

“Bishop’s Daily Blessings is where I cater and cook fresh food, made-to-order, delivered within the hour, seasoned to perfection,” Bishop said.

Another participant was Joe White, who spent time working in “any facet” of the restaurant industry while living for a time in Atlanta.

Also participating in the class was Autumn Ayers, a women’s shelter resident. Ayers, who has a passion for food and cooking fostered by her family, said she is appreciative of Williams’ cooking service at the shelter.

“The way (Williams) prepares the food here, I really like it. It’s really good,” Ayers said, adding that she only dislikes the food on the days Williams is not working.

Williams, who bases what she cooks for shelter residents off what she obtains from the Urban Mission’s Food Warehouse produce pantry, said she chose to go above and beyond with the food she serves to the shelter residents.

“I feel like I’m providing good, healthy, home-cooked meals for ladies who are in need,” Williams said.

Now, the class’s extra set of hands in the kitchen have, hopefully, contributed to making that mission a bit easier.

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