Twelve Baskets Café & Cooking School in process. It will be more than a place where an “at risk” family can get a meal and Twelve Baskets is not a soup kitchen. It is an exciting not-for-profit restaurant with a singular mission to provide good nutritious meals: ‘meals with dignity’ and much, much, more.
Jesus took five small loaves and two fish and displayed His glory (Luke 9:12-17.) Ever wonder what happened to the Twelve Baskets leftover after Jesus fed the five thousand? I assure you they did not go to waste but went on to bless even more families. Twelve Baskets is a not-for-profit restaurant and teaching ministry. Meals will be provided whether a family can pay or not. For families in need, we will offer the assistance of a Christian social worker to assist with meeting other on-going needs and helping the families acquire much needed resources.
The most exciting feature of Twelve Baskets is the cooking classes. We will offer cooking classes, teaching families how to prepare and cook proteins, fresh vegetables, and starches. The entire restaurant is centered on making food an experience, not only an educational experience, but a transformational experience. For some of these children their only chance of eating vegetables is the green beans offered in the school cafeteria. However, at Twelve Baskets we will teach children to prepare and sauté fresh vegetables full of flavor, vitamins, and nutrients.
Parents and children will both learn to prepare delicious, flavorful foods at the direction of culinary-trained chefs and registered dietitians. To make the training “stick,” we will provide “at cost,” fresh butchered meats and fish, fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes and starches. We will teach families how to replace empty calories with nutritious fresh scratch cooking. Our Kids Cooking Club will be an exciting opportunity to teach life-long skills and share the love of Jesus.
In combination of Cooking Matters and No Kid Hungry, we have planned Cooking Matters at the store. We have, and will continue to facilitate healthy eating and shopping tours. We’ll cover fresh fruits and vegetables, bread and grains, dairy and meat, fish and poultry, and teach the participants the skills to make better choices and to understand unit prices, and buy within a budget.
Eating healthy actually costs less than eating unhealthy frozen and canned foods, full of sodium, sugar and empty calories. There is a need to reach out to families and “at risk” children, with the Bread of Life and some fresh cooked fish. Our nation struggles with a generation of obese children. Those hit hardest by our economic times struggle even more. Children go without ever having a truly nutritious meal that will feed their young minds and bodies. Together we can fill this gap and do more than just feed families; we can teach families and children a life-long skill.
Twelve Baskets will also be a Cooking School. Not all of our guests will come with a need. Many will come with a blessing. We will offer the community a great luncheon experience and offer “professional development” classes to those who want to pursue a career in food service and achieve a pathway to certification through the American Culinary Federation. This will help offset the costs of feeding families who struggle to put food on the table. Families will feel comfortable eating at Twelve Baskets. No one but the Lord will know who has paid or not paid for his or her meals.
I urge you to consider making Twelve Baskets Café & Cooking School a reality. We need your help. We are working on selecting a location that is convenient to both Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati, and it must be a location on the bus line. We have found a location in Covington, KY, and we need your help to bring this concept to fruition. Your tax-deductible gift is urgently needed. Together we can win the lost and have a daily presence in improving the nutrition of “at risk families”.
Sincerely,
Rev. Kevin M. Gleason, MBA
Chef Director
