The Hand That Feeds You

Lately I've been thinking about how I keep getting put in situations to feed people. For two years I worked in the kitchen of our Church girl's camp. I'm not going this year because of other things going on in my life. But I have to admit that I am really not fond of cooking. I think I'm a pretty good cook, but I don't enjoy cooking. But as I thought about this, I realized that while I don't enjoy cooking, I do enjoy feeding people. There is such satisfaction in giving people good food. It doesn't have to be something I made either. I just like to make people happy.

Last year when I was working in the kitchen at girl's camp, they put me in charge of the hike meals. The girls would come to the kitchen, and I would have all of the ingredients they needed to either make their own lunch to take with them, or to cook a dinner when they arrived at their destination. There were two men leaders who went hiking with each group of girls and women leaders. After two days of eating the same food for lunch and dinner, these men came and asked me if I could fix something different for them. It was so gratifying for me to go hunting in the kitchen to see what I could come up with for them. One day I made "hobo" dinners in aluminum foil. I put in chicken and spices and vegetables for them to cook over the coals. The next night, one of them brought me a fish he had caught and I put that in his food. They came back and told me how much they enjoyed the food.

There was also a girl who got sick while at camp. She needed to have a bland diet. It was a fun challenge for me to find different kinds of things for her to try eating, and different ways to cook them so that she wouldn't get tired of them. By the end of the week she was able to eat regular food again.

Recently when I did the "wheat table" at the preparedness fair, we gave the people whole kernel wheat cereal, and whole wheat bread to try. We had butter and homemade peach jam for them to put on the bread. They enjoyed the bread so much, and it made me happy to give them good food that tasted good too.

Maybe this all stems from some sort of innate mothering instinct or something. I wish I had the innate desire to cook too. lol But I do get enjoyment out of just feeding people.