I am not known as a great cook. Actually, I truly hate to cook. I know hate is a harsh word, but please don’t ask me to bring a covered dish to your potluck dinner because I won’t. It’s not that I don’t like to eat—I love eating! (So please feel free to invite me to a meal!) Cooking is not my forte, and believe me, you would not want to eat what I cook.
When I was growing up, my mother would spend hours in the kitchen preparing a meal: chopping, dicing, frying, and rolling it out. Many times she worked so hard in the kitchen that you could see sweat across her brow and paper towels wrapped around her finger where she cut it with a knife. Her food was always excellent, and she was always exhausted from the preparation. At dinner time she would sit quietly at the table, watching us gobble up our food and listening to us make all kinds of chomping noises, then off we would go, running out the door to finish playing with our friends before bedtime.
Now that I am grown, and after all of these many years of living away from home, I still cannot find any food that tastes as good as mom’s. There was just something about her cooking that made food taste extra special and so good. The ingredients were simple, nothing fancy, but the way she prepared a meal brought out unspeakably good flavors and a warmth that always satisfied your stomach and made you feel special and loved. Mom knew the secret to great cooking and that was her LOVE.
The cooks who prepare Feed the Hunger food for thousands of children around the world also know the secret to great cooking—LOVE.
Faithful cooks in FtH partner countries. Clockwise, from top left: Bangladesh, Jamaica, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Kenya
To all the great cooks out there we say “Thank you!”
Thanks mom! Love you too!
Melinda Staples | Project Manager