Hi everyone! My name is Emily and I volunteer as a menu planning assistant at The Hunger Intervention Program. I am a nutrition/dietetics student at Bastyr University and I began volunteering as a way to learn more about nutrition programs in the community. I have been volunteering with the organization for a few months and have gotten the opportunity to learn about the process and help with some of the steps that go into putting together the senior meals.

Planning senior meals begins with a monthly menu, every Monday and Wednesday of the month has a well though out, nutritionally complete meal assigned to it. The meal selections are typically based on the inventory of donated food that is available to the Hunger Intervention Program.

My job begins with entering the components of the monthly menus into a production sheet. I calculate the correct amount of food required to feed the 60-80 seniors and to meet the state standards for protein, fruit, vegetables, starches, etc. It is also important to consider what the portions will be after the food has been altered. For example, raw meat will have a different size and weight when it is cooked. To ensure that state standards are being met and that there will be enough to feed everyone, I need to determine how much food there will be once its in the form in which it will be consumed. To do this, I cheat and use a website designed for that purpose. Next, I find and/or adjust the recipes to match that amount of food. Doing so involves a lot of conversions and finding recipes that are a good fit!

From there, other volunteers use that information to gather additional ingredients and to prepare the wonderful weekly meals!