Spotlight on Education Outreach
How do you turn a kid into a self-proclaimed chef of a food that was previously on their do-not-eat-under-any-circumstances list? Sign them up for a class taught by Lisa Nichols! She will flip the script in the most gentle, motivating, peaceful way possible.
Lisa, who is at the helm of our Education Program here at the Co-op, has a deep reverence for food and people that allows her to connect with an exceptionally broad range of people in ways that are memorable and impactful. In short, she is absolutely essential to our Co-op mission, fully embodying “Education, Training, and Information,” and “Concern for Community,” two of the seven cooperative principles that drive our organization.
Lisa takes great care to solve problems for people. On a macro level, she does this by creating programming that makes good, healthy food more accessible in people’s lives. This means planning classes like “Satiating Snacking Strategies,” in which she arms attendees with knowledge about snacks that don’t take hours of preparation, that are filling and curb cravings, and that are truly sensorily satisfying to eat. This class is all about honoring your body with the nutrition it needs, rather than seeing healthy eating as a punishment to endure while working towards your personal fitness and wellness goals. One of Lisa’s biggest goals for the education program is to let people know that they don’t have to be in the kitchen for hours every day in order to eat really well. Every life circumstance is a curriculum challenge that Lisa approaches with a growth mindset, meaning that there are always sustainable solutions to be discovered!
On a micro level, Lisa is a nurturing leader who does everything she can to make each class participant feel comfortable and welcomed. For this reason, there are many long-time BFC class attendees. We asked Lisa if she had any favorite memories from classes throughout the years and she had a stream of anecdotes about students reaching out to tell her how the recipes she taught have made their way into the sanctity of daily, or at least fairly regular, routine. This was the case for the eight-year-old pickle chef extraordinaire mentioned above, who first learned how to make refrigerator pickles from Lisa several years ago, at a time when he categorically refused to eat cucumber in any form.
Lisa believes, and proves with each class and school outreach, that hands-on experience is one of the best ways to reach people of all ages. In all of her classes she strives not just to teach concepts and methods to her students, but to include them as much as possible in each step. Everyone is encouraged to chop the ingredients, enjoy the aromas, and make their own decisions about whether or not their dish needs more of this or less of that, as long as it is a flexible part of the recipe. She uses food as a vehicle for self-discovery, self-mastery, self-trust, and a building block for developing interpersonal ease. You will leave her classes and outreaches knowing more about food, but you will also, very likely, leave with more friends and with a sense of peace and healthy self-satisfaction. In almost every class there seems to be a moment when the room shifts from busied and frenetic to warm, happy, and mellow as a result of the quality of nourishment received from the food. These moments feed Lisa’s soul and are a sign to her that she’s done her job well.
The community Lisa has built with her education volunteers is also something special. Most people who volunteer with Lisa have some sort of education training or experience that enables them to build face-to-face relationships and be a healing, calming presence in the room. Or they have serious food skills. Our education volunteers can also be found preparing large numbers of cooking kits that are used in classrooms. Preassembling cooking kits gives Lisa so much more space during outreach to interact more fully with the kids and we simply could not do that without help. Community also extends to our network of local producers and farmers, all of whom Lisa is deeply committed to supporting. She is most often the one going the extra mile to see if there is just one more way she can include a local ingredient into a recipe or to feature one more local producer at an event.
Lisa is very grateful to every Board President, General Manager and Marketing Department Manager over the years, as they have all been extremely supportive of education, allowing her to do cool and exciting things within the department. She is also very grateful to participants, who create a beautiful community for each other and tolerate plenty of goofy and unexpected moments. As Lisa puts it, this allows her breathing room and latitude to create programming that gets the brightest light on people’s faces.
Written by Sarah Galgano
