Sunday Breakfast Mission Hosts Farm to Table Dinner Party

Just a couple days ago, a five-week cooking class for men transitioning out of homelessness at the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission on 13th between Pearl and Vine Street came to a conclusion. The residents’ knowledge from this class taught by Meei Ling Ng, a local artist and urban framer, and George Pan, the owner of Foo Kitchen, was put to the test on the final day. The participants of the class, including Ng and Pan worked together to prepare a 5-course meal, consisting of a garden salad, coconut curry corn chowder, fried shrimp with summer noodles, stuffed pork tenderloin with sautéed kale and brown rice, and a sweet dessert pizza. To top it off every single dish used ingredients the residents had grown in a beautiful garden they made in the shelter’s parking lot. Ng grew up growing her own food in her backyard and actively works to spread her knowledge of agriculture and stress the importance wherever she lives. Participants of the program were exposed to foods they had never had before. Joe Thornton, one of the pupils of the class, said, “I’m a meat-and-potatoes guy. But I learned how to make some all-vegetable dishes, and you wouldn’t believe how flavorful they were. I could eat them all day”. This response is exactly what Meei Ling was looking for. She said that the point of this class was to show men how they can “live off the land” by growing and cooking health hearty meals themselves with the resources they have, and it’s clear from Thornton’s testimony that the class was a success. More on the story here.