LEWISTON — Clever Cooks, a youth-centered cooking and catering program of the St. Mary’s Nutrition Center, 208 Bates St., recently prepared and served a meal to the St. Mary’s Auxiliary as part
of their quarterly luncheon. Pauline O’Connell, auxiliary president, coordinated the lunch
with the Nutrition Center as a way to help members learn more about the
work done there.

The Auxiliary’s mission is to engage in
educational and fundraising activities in support of St. Mary’s Health
System. The Auxiliary has supported the Pink Tulip Project by
supplying and helping to plant pink tulips in shape of a ribbon in
honor of breast cancer survivors and awareness. Additionally, they have
supported the With All Our Hearts campaign, which is raising funds to
expand St.
Mary’s Emergency Department and build a new medical office building in
Auburn.

During lunch, members of the Auxiliary watched a 14-minute informational video about Lots to Gardens, a program of the Nutrition Center, and learned more about the cooking, hunger and the food access work of the center as a whole.

Kirsten Walter, director of the center; Sherie Blumenthal, food access coordinator from Lots to Gardens; and Amanda Bailey, a Clever Cooks member and former Lots to Gardens youth gardener, shared their thoughts on the importance and impact of their programs, their experiences working within the Lewiston community and their appreciation and love of the city they call home.

The Nutrition Center of Maine is one of the newest health services offered by St. Mary’s Health System. Located in downtown Lewiston, the center provides nutrition-related services for all residents in the community and is a resource for others in the state doing similar work.

Clever Cooks is a youth-centered cooking and catering program of the St.
Mary’s Nutrition Center. They prepare and serve healthy meals for community members and agencies in the Lewiston-Auburn area using fresh ingredients from community gardens and local farms. They give the youth they work with the skills and confidence to feed themselves and their families well and provide opportunities for youth to learn basic cooking, catering and public speaking skills that they can use at future jobs.