Serving Spokane: Dishing up cooking tips, tricks

For those struggling to pay rent, find a job or recover from drug addiction, learning to cook is a task often pushed to the back burner.

That’s why Our Place Community Ministries, a poverty resource center, offers a weekly cooking class for poor people living in the West Central neighborhood. It also has a food and clothing bank.

Around 10:15 a.m. on Tuesdays, a small group of volunteers teaches the basics of putting together a nutritious meal with ingredients found at Second Harvest. Lessons include how to use a knife safely, make a quick sauté and avoid contaminating ingredients with raw meat.

Marjorie Lauersen, 79, has helped teach the class for almost 20 years. She said it’s less about memorizing recipes and more about being resourceful with available ingredients.

“We’re never quite sure on Monday what we’re going to make for Tuesday’s class,” said Brooks Goode, another volunteer.

On Monday, volunteers searched the food bank for the makings of a well-rounded lunch. They found a pound of cold cut ham, a bag of quinoa, peppers, onions, an eggplant and a can of spiced tomatoes.

That would have to do.

“It’s like my mom always said: You can make something out of nothing,” said Kathy Yunk, who attended the class Tuesday. “When I was growing up we didn’t have much. You had to learn to use what you had.”

Yunk and her boyfriend, Jerry Boatsman, recently moved into an apartment down the street from Our Place after living for nine years at her mother’s house near Shadle Park.

“He needs to learn how to cook – he’s not a very good cook,” Yunk said, prompting a smirk from her boyfriend.

Lauersen said it’s hard to predict how many will attend the cooking class. Some Tuesdays there are a dozen or more. On others, nobody shows up. Goode said there’s typically a surge around the end of each month, when paychecks and food stamps are nearly used up.

Visitors to Our Place often come hungry. West Central is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Spokane; as in many urban areas, access to fresh food is relatively scarce.

“West Central is a food desert,” said Tracie Swanson, the executive director of Our Place. “There’s not one major grocery store in the area.”

Our Place serves the area bound by West Montgomery Avenue, Division Street and the Spokane River. That area encompasses five census tracks where 23 to 47 percent of residents live below the poverty line, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Swanson said limited access to transportation is “one of the greatest barriers” to securing food, water and shelter. When someone doesn’t have a car and can’t afford a bus pass, and the nearest grocery store is a mile away, getting by can be difficult, she said.

Martin Freatman, 50, came to Our Place after losing his job as a chef at Northern Quest Casino. Working became difficult after he broke a hip and an elbow in separate falls.

After finding a place to stay at the House of Charity, 32 W. Pacific Ave., Freatman decided to put his culinary training to good use. He volunteered about four months ago to help teach the cooking class at Our Place.

Once his disability benefits are approved, he plans to find work again.

But, “I would do this for free anyway,” he said. “I love what I do.”