Crock of Love is a passion project fueled by the need to end food insecurity and lack of culinary programming and life skills for the youth of our community. I aim to help the youth build skills to share the love of cooking with others and build self reliance and self esteem. Many of the youth I serve can be systematically forgotten. They need community support to know we care and give the attention they are craving. Crock of Love provides a community space where all are welcome and given personal attention to build a specific skill (home cooking) which is becoming more and more rare. 

This offers the chance to help out family. The youth can take the skills home and share the ability to make foods from scratch to save money, provide healthy food choices, and help support the family with the ability to cook meals and take some pressure off parents. Many of the youth involved have not been indroduced to flavors we use in class. Each week the class embarks on a journey to introduce new textures and flavors while sticking close to the edge of common foods kids love. Everything we do is homemade. 

The class has provided excitement and the youth can be heard around the neighborhood professing how they would love to pursue a culinary career. Hearing this exitement melts my heart. Giving hope and support is the focus of the classes. When I adminster the program, I also set up a secondary event. I have had community members add even more love by offering a Poetry Slam Class, an art class where a banner was made to express why the kids love to cook, along with open gym, motivational speeches, and more. There will be much more to come with community support.