By Emily Shoemaker, VRG Intern
Christopher Place Employment Academy is a residential employment academy. The program invites men to engage in a process of change that moves them from being homeless to permanent stable living, maintain full-time employment, and to live a life free of drugs. The program includes an eight-week curriculum for rehabilitation. Their day begins with chores to help keep the center clean and operational and is then followed with classes focused on a wide range of everyday necessities including cleaning, physical education, mental health training, and cooking.
Our host, Chef Crystal Forman, was kind enough to allow us to sit in on one of her vegan recipe tutorials to get a look at some entry level, low-cost vegan meals that are ready to impress. She teaches classes every week during the eight-week curriculum. Below you’ll see the first course we were taught, Vegan Crabless Cakes (or Maryland Style Zucchini Cakes). The cakes are a pale yellow as they entered the pan, and by the time they’re done cooking they turn into a delicious golden brown after frying.
As Chef Crystal moved through the recipe, she relayed many fun facts about the nutritional benefits of zucchini. As a lesser known vegetable, many of the men were surprised to learn that zucchini skin is a fantastic source of vitamin A, good for skin, and has a lot of soluble and insoluble fiber, good for cardiovascular and gut health. While we used zucchini for our lesson, the recipe can also sub in lions mane mushrooms for a more realistic look and feel. Seaweed is a heavy component in the dish as it gives the cake its umami taste to give it an ocean flavor.
The energy in the room was calm and focused on the tips and tricks being shown, with many follow-up questions being asked as the tutorial went on. Some of the participants had other commitments unique to their treatment plan that caused them to trickle in and out of the lesson, but the group dynamic was very supportive of their cohort buddies. They made sure they didn’t miss out on any of the information or yummy taste tests at the end.
Even the pigeons outside could smell the veggies and fruits, and they made sure to say hello as we moved into the second course, Pineapple Mango Smoothies.
It’s worth a note that the pigeons were very well loved. The one we saw hop over the most often was the skinniest of the flock, though they were all plump and happy to be fluttering around and looking in. They made for good company as the lesson went on.
The smoothie used oat milk, maple syrup, frozen mangos, and frozen pineapples to make a fantastic sweet treat and a great method to fight the summer heat. We learned about the many local farms and farmers markets around Baltimore that offer fresh produce for low prices as the fruit was blended up into a super smooth treat.
After everything was done, the smoothies were poured into tasting cups and the Crabless Cakes were plated with spicy brown mustard and crackers, alongside a little helping of dried seaweed as a snack. While we were enjoying the taste test, one of the case managers poked their heads in to see if there were leftovers. Apparently the recipe is so well loved amongst the staff that demo day was already memorized. Suffice to say there were no half-finished plates by the end of the lesson.
Overall, it was a great experience to get to sit in on such an informative session. We can’t wait to bring these recipes back home and continue to share the love we got from Christopher Place!
For more information on VRG internships, see: https://www.vrg.org/student/index.php