Members of the Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri, have embraced Jewish Family Services. Its members have helped with holiday projects as well as with JFS’ Food Pantry, which monthly serves more than 800 families.
Now the Junior League has expanded its HealthyU cooking classes to include JFS clients. JFS Kesher Food Pantry families can enroll in these monthly virtual cooking classes held the fourth Tuesday of the month. The cooking classes are available for free to food pantry clients who must register in advance.
Junior League members work closely with the JFS Food Pantry team putting together a healthy menu for each month’s class. Volunteers come to the pantry — safely distanced and wearing masks — to assemble the ingredients for families to pick up prior to the virtual class led by Junior League members. Clients then “tune in” via YouTube or follow along on the recipe cards included in their bags.
The menu for the first class held in September included quick, healthy eggs recipes; October’s menu focused on meal prep including how to prepare chicken. Up this month — soup.
So far, the virtual cooking classes have been well received.
“I am enjoying the recipes, and the videos are awesome,” said one pantry client participant.
Each year, the Junior League chooses nonprofits to partner with to help further its goal of improving life in Kansas City. In 2017, the Junior League selected JFS as one of its nonprofits providing both volunteer and financial support to allow the JFS Food Pantry to expand hours and provide nutrition education to its recipients. The partnership continues to be a win-win for everyone.
Savannah Kannberg, a JFS Food Pantry volunteer and a member of Congregation Kol Ami, chairs the Junior League effort with the JFS Food Pantry. Kannberg said when the pandemic hit, Junior League volunteers had to make some adjustments to continue the JFS project.
“In pre-COVID times, we offered traditional cooking classes for our families as part of Healthy U Family Meals. We would work together on cooking skills each session and learn easy-to-make meals that are healthy,” Kannberg said. “At the end of each session we would have dinner together and provide groceries to make the meal again at home.”
Like so many others, the group pivoted to make sure the program could continue.
“Our committee comes up with a few recipes each month. We try to focus on healthy, inexpensive recipes that are seasonal and easy to make,” Kannberg said. “After coming up with the recipes, we each film a cooking video that is hosted on the Junior League’s YouTube channel. Once a month, we pass out grocery bags at each of our locations filled with all the participants need to make the month’s recipes and sometimes bonus ingredients. Each bag has the recipe cards printed.”
In addition to helping JFS clients through its HealthyU program, the Junior League is working with families at Operation Breakthrough and two Boys & Girls Club units.
“We’re in completely unprecedented times,” Kannberg said. “Having the ability to provide families with new recipes and getting to hear from them each month about how the recipes went is such a lovely thing. I look forward to our sessions and getting to see the same faces each time with how it went and catch up on what’s going on in their lives.”
Running two locations of the JFS Food Pantry takes a lot of volunteer manpower. Hundreds of people throughout Kansas City count on the pantry to put meals on their table each month. Since COVID-19, the food pantry has served more than 1,000 families and food distribution has doubled.
If you or an organization are interested in volunteering with JFS, email , call 913-730-1445 or contact JFS Volunteer Engagement director Taly Friedman at .
Are you or someone you know facing food insecurity, JFS can help; send an email to .
