November 1st Post

I made my first ever morning report announcement and who would have thought it was for my signature project!

As mentioned before, I am trying to get the Emma community to be involved in the dinner that we will be making for Joseph's House. Hence, I made an announcement with Helena about a food drive on campus. When I checked the box after the first day of the food drive, there was nothing in it. I was quite surprised, but immediately made a Plan B. Since my Dad recently started a non profit organization, and is related to donations, I could use his money to buy all the ingredients that we still needed, in the form of sponsoring. However, after I sent out a follow up email later that night, I received tons of food the next day. What a surprise!

In addition to the food donations we received from Emma community, Ms Mossop and I also went out to downtown Troy to ask local stores for donations. We first went to Uncle Sam's, and we briefly explained who we are, what we are doing, and showed the manager some photos of previous emma girls cooking at Joseph's House. He promised to give us canned beans, tomatoes, and oil without asking us any further questions! We then went to Placid Baker and Little Pecks and did the same thing - I felt like an entrepreneur haha :) I am also planning to make a website/online platform that lists all the Troy companies that have donated foods to recognize their sponsorships.

I am currently working on my cookbook, and starting a recycling program in the dorms. FOCUS will be helping me out with the recycling program.

November 2nd post

My first trip to Joseph's House was very successful! Shoutout to Ms Buinicky, Mae, Natalie, Yoosong, and Sarah for helping out on Saturday.

We had all the ingredients we needed, and we worked together really well. We communicated with one another about what jobs that would like to do. For example, Sarah knows how to cook rice, so she was responsible for cooking the rice. We finished cooking everything just in time, and were able to serve the food to the people. There was a huge line and a lot of them came back for seconds. (that means our food must be not too bad!) We also saw big smiles on their faces :) I think the recipe that we made (black bean soup with rice and a lot of toppings) was something they don't eat often at Joseph's House. I saw their menu from earlier in the week, and it was mostly pasta, which doesn't have all the nutritional value they need, especially for pregnant mothers. I am so glad we made something that they enjoyed!

During our preparation,  Janet, the volunteer coordinator of Joseph's House, gave us some background as well as a tour of the entire center. We saw some family rooms, single rooms, and storage area. Through this tour, she taught me not to be judgemental towards the people that comes to homeless centers. Some of them are here not because they did something wrong, but because of unfortunate events that were beyond their control. I appreciate Janet so much for all her kind works that she has done in Joseph's House, serving the community unconditionally. 

It was such a memorable experience from getting the Emma community involved, asking local markets for donations, many meetings with Ms Mossop, planning the recipes and to actually cooking it. I am looking forward to my second trip to Joseph's House, which will be sometime in January. 

 The finished meal!

The black bean soup

 Sarah and Yoosong cooking

Sausages donated by Honest Weight Co-op

 Mae serving fresh bread donated by Placid Baker

Apple crisp dessert made by Sam E, Beverly G , and I on campus at Melissa's apt