Cooking to Catharsis
Capital Region nonprofits empower women through culinary career training
STORY BY Robin Douglas PHOTOS BY Debbie Cunningham
A Red Door Desserts box contains a dozen cookies along with statistics printed on the inside flap about the women who participate in Saint John ’ s Program for Real Change .
Isolation and uncertainty brought on by the pandemic have left countless families feeling trapped in a maelstrom of financial and domestic crises . Many women face homelessness after fleeing abusive situations and need individual services to address a web of complex issues . Capital Region organizations like Saint John ’ s Program for Real Change and My Sister ’ s House are lifelines for thousands of vulnerable women and their children , providing a holistic approach with crisis counseling , housing , supportive services and hands-on employment training . Both of these programs focus on culinary training , but the lessons learned extend far beyond the kitchen .
“ Some don ’ t know how to boil water when they first get here ,” says Tiffany Johnson , vocational trainer at Saint John ’ s . The up-to-18-month rehabilitation and job training program teaches transferable skills and includes a range of services designed to help formerly homeless women achieve self-sufficiency . “ So we start with the basics and work our way up from there .”
Saint John ’ s clients — as the program calls its participants — are provided mental health therapy , parenting classes , career education and job training through the program ’ s social enterprises . The program may be best known for Plates Café , full-service restaurants co-founded in 2010 by former Saint John ’ s CEO Michelle Steeb and Mulvaney ’ s B & L coowner Bobbin Mulvaney , but both cafes closed due to COVID-19 with no plans to reopen . The Midtown location was taken over by Pressed Record Cafe , and the program uses the south Sacramento
38 comstocksmag . com | March 2022