Cooking Toward Recovery

It was food writer MFK Fisher who said, “First we eat, then we do everything else.”
 

Fisher realized the near-religious importance of food as nourishment, and how essential was the skill to cook both well and economically—as does Local Matters, a nonprofit organization passionate about life-changing food education and where the same quote just so happens to proudly adorn their Columbus office walls.

Local Matters provides healthful food education to more than 18,000 people each year in Columbus, but perhaps one of their most impactful partnerships is with Maryhaven, Central Ohio’s largest and most comprehensive behavioral health services provider specializing in addiction recovery.

In recent years, the opioid crisis has swept the nation, with Ohio, in particular, being hard hit. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, Ohio is among the top five states with the highest rates of opioid-related overdose deaths.

One of the major efforts put in place by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to counter the crisis includes improving access to treatment and recovery services. But successful addiction recovery isn’t a single disciplinary approach nor is it as straightforward as it might appear on paper.

Nutrition, in fact, is an essential part of addiction recovery as healthy food habits not only help the body become stronger and better able to recover from the addiction, but the healthy habits developed during rehabilitation will set the final and ongoing stage of recovery when returning to regular life. Good choices in recovery can mean good choices later. Fortunately, many addiction centers like Maryhaven realize the role nutrition plays in the recovery process.

“It’s changed how I think about cooking,” says Celeste, one woman at Maryhaven who has participated in the Local Matters’ programs at Maryhaven. .

Maryhaven integrates a multidisciplinary approach to recovery. Local Matters leads the way with Growing Matters, which teaches the women in recovery how to prepare, grow and tend to their own produce garden, and Cooking Matters, which focuses on technical skills like cutting and sautéing, cooking nutritious meals, and how to make healthy food choices when shopping.

Through Cooking Matters, Celeste learned how to cook a variety of nutritious meals with just a few staple ingredients. Food became an ally—one where she could turn to her ingredients and know she could create something for herself and those around her.

“It was amazing to see how I could turn nothing into something,” says Elise, another woman in the program, when we talk about their challenge to cook a healthy meal for under $10. Most people think this task impossible until they learn how to procure fresh and natural ingredients and build a meal just from the basics.

“It’s changed how I think about cooking,” she says.

The Cooking Matters program taught Ashley how the healthful cooking experience can translate into other aspects of her life, reminding her of the importance of “taking the time to stop and make a good choice.”

When on the streets and dealing with addiction, it can feel like every woman for herself, all of the women express. Yet it is in these classes those barriers begin to drop and support systems can slowly form.

Elise talks about helping other women with preparing foods or sharing her knowledge, like her knife skills. “In that moment, it felt like we were family,” she says.

Despite their different backgrounds, experiences and stories, all of the women share a similar thread that the cooking program has granted them—a feeling of self-sufficiency.Many in the program hope to not only provide for themselves when they leave Maryhaven, but for their family as well. Despite their different backgrounds, experiences and stories, all of the women have gained a feeling of self-sufficiency.

The Maryhaven and Local Matters partnership understands the importance of equipping these women in recovery with the necessary ingredients of confidence, self-reliance and practical skills so that they can independently begin to rebuild their lives—meal by meal.

Because first we eat, then we do everything else.

For more information about help with recovery, visit www.maryhaven.com.

For more information about Local Matters and ways you can support, visit www.local-matters.org.