Cooking + Collective Connection for Older Youth in Foster Care

For years one of our goals has been to increase opportunities for youth in foster care to experience normalcy. Add to that the desire to give youth in foster care more experiences in which they can benefit from building positive relationships with those with a shared identity (what can be referred to as collective connection and can combat collective loneliness).

We are thrilled to share with you that these two things are now a reality thanks to the vision of a local volunteer chef, Ellie Basch, who leads our very first cooking workshop for youth in foster care! SUP! (a play on the words ‘supper’ and ‘what’s up’) will give older youth in foster care the opportunity to build a solid foundation of basic cooking skills, empower participants to confidently cook delicious and healthy meals with a minimal budget in addition to offering them opportunities to experience the important feeling of belonging with a community of those with a shared identity.

Two cohorts of youth through Richmond Department of Social Services have completed our workshop in 2023. Read more below from our founder about this opportunity:

“Last week we had the 5th and final class of our very first SUP! Cooking Workshop with Chef Ellie Basch. For this last class we were honored to be hosted by Heritage for a three course meal and treated like royalty. Not only did Chef Joe Sparatta at Heritage create a special meal that he donated to our group but shared with us us his time and expertise. Most importantly, he welcomed our group to a table that we’re not always invited to.

The young people were invited into the kitchen and learned about what it takes to run and work at a restaurant. They experienced what a mocktail is, ate flowers in their salad, enjoyed chicken of the woods mushrooms harvested right here in their community and experienced the absolute most amazing dessert of all time.

One of the goals of this workshop was not only to share cooking skills with the young people aging out of foster care, but to give them an opportunity to benefit from collective connection. You see this is the opposite of collective loneliness which is what we experience when we don't have the benefit of identity with a common group that may come from a shared interest or affiliation. Or more simply put - a sense of community. Often times kids are in this thrown into this ‘group’ called foster care but the system does a poor job of giving these young people positive opportunities to build a positive community with each other.

At one point as we sat and celebrated each other we talked about connections in our lives. The social worker in our group said ‘think about the kind of people who want in your life, who do you want in your network?’ And one of the participants said, without hesitation, ‘I want Chef Ellie in my network and I want Chef Joe’s contact information too’. You see, he was building connections right in his community at a table that he may have normally not been invited to.

That’s what this was all about. By the 5th class, the participants didn’t want it to end. They shared contact information with each and had begun to learn nuances about each other like what style fashion they most tried to emulate or what each others zodiac signs were - just normal young adult things. Normalcy is what they experienced.”

We are forever grateful to Chef Ellie for making this possible in partnership with City of Richmond, Department of Social Services along with our volunteers and donors. Stay tuned for future information!

[FYI: If only we shared the amazing photos from this workshop. We intentionally choose not to share identifying pictures of the young people we serve to preserve all dignity]