The healing power of food (and those who serve it).
Through our Nutrition Program, Rose Brooks Center provides over 35,000 meals to survivors and children fleeing domestic violence in need of food, shelter, and support EACH year. The success of Rose Brooks’ nutrition program is demonstrated by the fact that fresh and healthy meals are always prepared on time, three times a day, 365 days a year.
Our kitchen staff is enthusiastic about creating meals which support the shelter residents’ healing process. The chefs understand that when our bodies are stressed, it lowers our ability to process the food we eat. They also know our families have been living in trauma, limiting their ability to take care of themselves. This is where our incredible kitchen staff step in, build trusting relationships, and work each day to provide nutritious, healing foods that nourish and begin to reset their bodies.
Over the past 12-months, we have provided a total of 35,333 meals to adults and children in shelter, including 7,032 breakfasts, 11,412 lunches, 12,609 dinners and 4,280 supplemental meals. Kitchen staff utilize the dietary requirements as a framework from which to provide a variety of healthy, flavorful meals including full-liquid diet options for survivors who enter shelter ill, or with a jaw or mouth injury from abuse, inhibiting their ability to chew.
We thank our staff of Rose Brooks chefs for always working to overcome the difficult barrier of funding by being creative (a.k.a. “your very own on-site vegetable garden!”) and cognizant of costs.
We also thank The McGee Foundation and McGowan Charitable Foundation for their funding and
instrumental role in our ability to offer nutritious, enjoyable, and incredibly healing meals for our families.