Our October “Do a Good Cooking Deed” award goes to 5 awesome young men who live in England. They were nominated by Nicola, an employee of the home where they live and an avid 30 Day Gourmet cook. I’m doubling the award this month since it will be split 5 ways. Great job, boys! Here’s the story that Nicola told me recently by e-mail.

I’d like to nominate the Kids in a Children’s home that I am associated with for your “Do a Good Cooking Deed” contest.

First, let me set the scene a little:

These kids are not living with their parents either because their parents abused them – so they were taken away or because their parents couldn’t handle them, and they are in a children’s home rather than foster care because after a number of foster care providers tried, they proved too much to handle!

We have five boys - all teenagers. They all display “challenging” behaviour (in other words they are difficult – complete nightmares!) and a couple have mild ADHD!

Anyway about a month ago when they went back to school it was approaching Harvest festival time, we had a house meeting and one of the boys wanted to do something for the old people in the area for the harvest festival, but he wanted to do something different from just buying a few tins of food. One of the other boys suggested that they all cooked a few cakes, and then one bright spark suggested that they make some food to put in the freezer – as he had heard me mention that I do. He told the others that it would be a great idea as we have three freezers, and I am always saying how much money I save with freezer cooking! Everyone thought this was a splendid idea! I agreed thinking that once we started planning the cooking out and worked out how much it would cost their enthusiasm would soon disappear.

A couple of days later I brought in my freezer cooking books (including 30 day gourmet – of course) A couple of the boys had already visited local supermarkets and made lists of what things cost. Well after looking at cookbooks and a few spirited discussions, they raised that their weekly pocket money wasn’t going to be enough – but rather than giving up they discussed methods of fundraising. Well in a rash moment I promised to double anything they could raise themselves (as I am part of the Home management).

A week later we all met again to plan the “cooking weekend”. We agreed that first thing on Saturday morning the boys would travel in the home’s car with me to shop – and another staff member with a small van would accompany us to haul food! I called CostCo, who agreed to let eight people in on my membership card (you are normally only allowed to take two guests – but there would have been bloodshed if I couldn’t take all the boys to each shop with me!) CostCo was great. The manager told me to ask for him as soon as we arrived at the store and he would let us in! We also planned to visit the local market for fruit and vegetables and a local supermarket for everything else.

The kids had outdone themselves on the fundraising front. They all chipped in their entire pocket money for a fortnight. They also asked to contribute some of the food money from the Home budget if they could go without expensive favourites. They had got at all the staff to contribute and all those attending school had been collecting money at school (we had a few calls from teachers checking that this wasn’t a scam!) The kids had also been to every business they could find in town – including things like solicitor’s offices and one kid had voluntarily gone to the local police station (these kids are often in trouble with the police – and the idea of one of them voluntarily going to a police station brings a lump to my throat). They had called relatives and Social workers. In the end, Saturday morning was quite an event. Two Social workers turned up with cheques from the Social services departments, and they had even brought themselves to help. Some off duty staff turned up to help and a few friends of the boys had turned up to help as well! Fortunately we have a catering sized kitchen!

The boys had raised nearly £800 (that is approx $1,150). This was more than we needed, even without the contribution of the home! It was also far more than I expected. There were several adults with tears in our eyes.
Well eventually a convoy of three cars and a van set off for CostCo, the market and Tesco. We met the manager at the entrance to Costco and he let all of us in - twelve on a ticket for three! He also presented us with a letter to give to the cashier – giving us a 25% discount on whatever we bought. The boys were all on their best behaviour (which still strikes most people as rude and offensive!) and whilst going round they were continuing to solicit more donations! We also had a spirited discussion about what to do with the excess money we had. As a result the boys decided to get boxes of washing tablets – as they figured these would be welcome by elderly folk living on limited means! They also decided to get boxes of chocolates for the elderly! We did slip in one or two treats for the boys, and a few things to feed the cooking hordes! After a very exhausting trip to CostCo, the van had to return to the home and unload before joining us at the market.

I couldn’t believe how well the boys were behaving. We had a few arguments but nothing major and the boys were still committed to this whole idea – even without all the treats they had seen in CostCo. Well the market traders were great to us as well. Once again the van returned home to unload.

When we eventually got to Tesco I was so glad that this was our last stop! And I was especially glad for the help of the other adults who had come along! One of the boys disappeared and I was beginning to worry until I saw the manager bearing down on us, then I almost panicked! One of the boys had demanded to see the manager, and informed him that CostCo had given us a 25% discount and invited him to do the same. Knowing the boy, I expected the manager to kick us out! Instead he offered us a 30% discount! I was stunned! He also gave us 20 Tescos cool bags for transporting the finished dishes in! We almost had an exchange of blows in Tesco – would you believe a very passionate argument over frozen versus tinned sweet corn! (we got half of each!).

Well we eventually got home at three in the afternoon to start on some preparation. I was already exhausted! Fortunately all the extra adults about helped enormously. The dining room became a secondary food preparation room, the living room became a second larder! And the office became a dining room! I was getting concerned that the boys had all been behaving so well that now were back home there would be problems, but they were all in good spirits and an atmosphere of camaraderie pervaded. We peeled and sliced and chopped! Boiled minced beef and baked so many chickens I lost count! Eventually at 10.00 pm I called a halt and suggested that people go home for the night so we could start again the next day. Well the boys had further surprises for me. All five of them squeezed into two bedrooms, so that people could stay over if they wanted to! In the end no one went home, and four of us stayed up overnight to try and restore some semblance of order to the home overnight. We mopped the floors, washed down walls and rescued a few burnt pans!

The boys started getting up at about five am and were all up by six thirty (they don’t usually get up until at least 10 on a weekend!) and by mid morning they were already out in the neighbourhood delivering the first of the frozen food parcels. The washing tablets and chocolates went down well and we had many calls of thanks for the food.
The boys were tireless, and eventually we finished cooking by 8pm. The freezers were full to overflowing and the house looked like a disaster area! The social workers and volunteers went home – some taking some food with them, and most taking some ingredients (I had over bought wildly! Allowing for mistakes, spills etc!) The boys either went to school on the Monday or were taken on an educational visit to a local museum while the rest of the staff cleaned and tidied the house! And they all went out again in the evening distributing the food parcels.

Well it was an exhausting three days, but fortunately largely free of major mishaps. We were all getting under each others feet at times – but the boys certainly carried off honours, the social workers were impressed, the team working and planning that went into the whole effort was amazing, and many of us still can’t believe that these kids could manage something like that (admittedly with a lot of help!) They don’t normally have an attention span long enough, and they aren’t usually so generous.

We couldn’t have done it without 30 Day Gourmet - not just the recipes and charts, but the tips both in the book and from the web site, simple things like chopping onions by using a blender and water! I also learnt the value of planning! It was hard going with the boys but at the end we all agreed that the advance planning was a must – and now they are talking of doing it again next year.

Well I hope that you liked the story. I’m sorry but I can’t give you any more details about the boys or where the home is for child protection reasons, but if it inspires others I will be glad!

Nicola