By Barbara Lyon
At lunchtime on a recent Friday at Stepping Stones’ food pantry in Menomonie, Nichole Manson sat at a table laden with small cups of fragrant venison chili and split pea soup.
After sampling the chili, a pantry patron declared, “That was good!” Handing him a copy of the recipe, Manson said, “I’ll bet you could make that yourself. I got all the supplies from here.”
It was perhaps one small step on the path toward Manson’s dream of starting a special kind of restaurant, one that would enable her to share what she’s learned from experience about the dilemma of receiving the gift of food – and not knowing what to do with it.
A second person who sampled the chili said she was surprised to find that it contained venison, observing that the meat’s sometimes-gamey taste usually prevented her from cooking or eating it. Manson shared her tip for sweetening up the flavor: soak the meat in milk overnight, then strain it before cooking it.
Not much cooking from scratch
Manson confessed that her upbringing during the 1980s didn’t involve much in the way of cooking from scratch.
“I grew up in a TV tray family,” she said, explaining that except for Sunday dinner once or twice month, most of their diet consisted of commercially processed food along with peanut butter and jelly.
She noted that with the advent of the microwave, “It kind of changed everybody’s idea of how to feed each other. … My grandmother was the cook, but when she passed away, a lot of her recipes went with her.”
Lessons born of necessity
About 10 years ago, Manson moved from her hometown of La Crescent, MN to Eau Claire for work. When she found herself pregnant, hungry and unable to work after being diagnosed with a pre-diabetic condition that included a carbohydrate intolerance, she turned to one of the city’s food pantries for help.
While she was grateful for the resource and support, her health concerns made it difficult to find foods that would provide the nutritional foundation she needed for a healthy pregnancy. But Manson was also facing another major challenge. .
“I didn’t know how to cook the food I was getting,” she recalled. “For example, sometimes I would show up at the pantry, and we’d get a whole chicken.”
Recipes and self-taught skills
Without a clue about how to prepare it, Manson turned to the internet and YouTube. Those provided her with recipes, and she taught herself the skills she needed to turn that raw chicken into a tasty family meal..
“Whatever the main ingredient I had from that week’s pantry visit was what I had to work with to make my family’s meals,” she said, noting that’s how food pantries work and adding, “Stepping Stones does a great job of providing an abundance of variety.”
While researching her restaurant dream, Manson learned that one in six children in the United States are hungry.
“I don’t think it’s just because their families can’t afford food,” she said. “I think there’s a broader reason – their families may not know how to provide the food in a healthy way. Just because they’re eating doesn’t mean they’re satiated.”
Healthy ‘real’ food
Throughout her journey, Manson has imparted the many benefits of cooking and eating healthy “real” food to her seven-year-old son. He noticed on a package of cereal he “just had to have” that it said “produced by genetic engineering” and asked his mom “what does that even mean?”
After Manson explained that it was produced in a lab, he said, “I’m not eating that … it’s chemicals and stuff!”
‘. . . a different kind of restaurant’
As time went on and things in her life improved, an idea began to percolate. It involved starting a different kind of restaurant, one that would include sharing what she’s learned from her experience with others who may be faced with the same dilemma of receiving the gift of food – and not knowing what to do with it.
Shooting the breeze with a Stepping Stones’ board member one day more than a year ago, in a conversation at the Menomonie Dog Park, Manson shared her vision of opening a special space for all.
“I want it to be a place that somebody can get a hot meal,” she explained. “And then if they wanted to learn skills, had ideas, or wanted to teach skills, like gardening or canning. … There’s lot of people out there that want to stand on their own two feet. But they don’t know where to get the skills without going to school.”
The board member suggested that Manson contact Kris Pawlowski, Stepping Stones’ assistant director and food pantry coordinator.
“I did – and things just kind of snowballed from there,” she said.
Culinary skills and a business plan
Pawlowski suggested that Manson hone her culinary skills by creating simple meals using ingredients from the pantry and offering samples to patrons, averaging once a month or so.
After completing the required application to become a volunteer, Manson not only began the sampling project, she also put her clerical skills to work at Stepping Stones’ reception desk. Her husband, Jerry, also volunteers at Winter Haven homeless shelter next door.
Working on a business plan to bring her dream to fruition, Manson has considered a number of possibilities. Among them is a cooperatively-owned operation. Or maybe a nonprofit restaurant something like the one she read about in Denver where people can volunteer their time in exchange for a meal.
She’s not sure about the quid pro quo aspect of that notion, however: “To me, if you need a meal, come in and have a meal.”
Meal kits and ‘Kindness Kitchen’
To help hone her culinary skills, Manson briefly subscribed to Hello Fresh, a mail-order meal kit service. She appreciated the lessons and some surprising new family favorite recipes like cream of spinach. But she wasn’t thrilled with the amount of packaging it involved.
However, creating a local take-home kit for low-income families would encounter state regulatory issues in regard to food containers that could be washed and re-used and Manson said she recognizes this.
Raising her son and working as an operator for Mayo Clinic Health System-Red Cedar in Menomonie doesn’t leave Manson with a lot of time to pursue her dream. Whatever form it takes, though, she knows what it will be called: “Kindness Kitchen – where everyone’s welcome.”
Note: Barbara Lyon is the Development and Communications Specialist for Stepping Stones of Dunn County, whose mission statement pledges it to help “strengthen the Dunn County communitu by providing food, shelter and support.” She can be reached at development@steppingstonesdc.org.