On November 14 VCE staff and Master Food Volunteers completed a series of six cooking demonstrations for Arlington County 911 dispatchers. Their supervisors requested these classes in order to provide the emergency services staff with ideas for quick and easy-to-prepare recipes that were full of healthy ingredients.

Master Food Volunteer Angela Braga chops cilantro for breakfast burritos.

Master Food Volunteers Angela Braga, Nancy Broff, Brigitte Coulton, Andrea Durkin, Maiko Diaizen, Thao Nguyen, Aisha Salazar, Katie Savarese, and Sharon Simkin helped Extension Agent Jennifer Abel make a series of breakfast, lunch, and dinner recipes chock full of fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, lean protein sources, and high fiber foods. Among the favorite recipes were the breakfast burrito, breakfast parfait, apple-tuna sandwiches, spinach salad, Party Time Pasta with ground turkey, and green bean and mushroom sauté. Staff received packets with all of the recipes that were prepared, along with many others for them to consider making at home.

A staff member serves up a portion of the breakfast parfait.

“I think everyone really appreciated the effort put forth on their behalf to help them with healthier habits,” said Debbie Powers, Deputy Coordinator of the Office of Emergency Management. This is a new partnership for VCE and we hope to do many more cooking demonstrations for emergency services staff in the future.

A staff member helps herself to Homemade Fruity Oatmeal.