From the perspective of the Facilitator:

I’ve never been the best cook and am pretty leery about trying to cook new things.  Being the teacher of the Cooking Class has pushed me out of my comfort zone.  More importantly, I get to learn alongside the people I am teaching.  I have several people in class tell me “I don’t know how to do that” or “I don’t understand how”.  What is so awesome is that I can honestly tell them, Me Too!  Together we learn and together we make mistakes.  We have learned that we can add to or leave out ingredients in the recipes however we want.  That is what makes us Amazing Cooks!  We don’t simply go by a recipe, we are guided by one, but we turn our dishes into what we want to eat.  This encourages everyone to give opinions, make decisions, take ownership of what they are doing and be proud of what they accomplish. 

We all look forward to cooking class.  We learn, learn and connect.  The class involves planning, budgeting, list making, price comparisons and learning how to do things as a group, which sometimes means compromising. 

All in all, cooking class has become a very special time for me.  I look forward to many more recipes and learning how to create foods that we love to eat and share! 

From the perspective of someone in class:

What I like about Cooking Class is that I can see other people that are not from Wausau.  I can see other residents and clients at Opportunity Inc.  I love being able to socialize with others.  I don’t have to worry about spreading the virus to anyone.  And I do not have to worry about getting myself sick.  Plus, I love baking too.  It keeps me occupied when I am stuck in my home and can not leave.  I would like to make a suggestion to the cooking class.  I would like it to be more than one a week but I know that it may not happen, or if the teacher would send me recipes so I can continue to bake.  The second suggestion is if we could make more savory dishes so I can be more independent when it comes to coking and baking with the staff.  I like to cook for the other residents in my house, so we could try other recipes so we can broaden our taste palettes.  The than those suggestion I do like my cooking classes.  I love being able to socialize and I like trying the new recipes that we make in our classes.