Improving Nutrition for the Most Vulnerable

When hungry people in Central Bucks turn to local food pantries for help, they usually find less nutritious, processed food, but a Doylestown girl is trying to change that.

Emilee Schluth has designed a cookbook of simple but healthy recipes to give to people who come to area food pantries for help feeding their families.

She got the idea for the cookbook focusing on fresh foods earlier this year when she helped out with a food drive her Girl Scout troop ran for the Bucks County Housing Group’s Doylestown pantry.

Most of the canned and prepackaged prepared foods donated to the pantry are high in fats and sodium, she discovered.

“I just noticed that it was a lot of processed food,” said Emilee, an eighth grader at Lenape Middle School.

That has started to change, with more attention being put on fresh, locally grown food.

During the summer growing season, local farmers, community gardens and individuals have been donating fresh produce. The has dropped off bags of tomatoes, beans, eggplant, peppers, cucumbers and more in recent weeks.

That’s a welcome change for those who run the pantries, and those who benefit from them.

“When we did surveys, our pantry clients said having fresh produce available was one of their greatest needs,” said Kate Bianchini of the nonprofit Bucks County Housing Group, who’s been working with Emilee to coordinate the project.

But many food pantry clients lack solid cooking skills and fancy cookware.

“We get a lot of fresh vegetables, but a lot of people don’t know what to do with them,” said Bianchini.

That’s when Emilee set to work.

The 13-year-old cadet from Doylestown Township took mystery vegetables like kohlrabi to task and found lots of recipes for the turnip-shaped vegetable.

Emilee solicited the community – including farmers, local chefs, farm markets and individuals – to provide simple but healthy recipes for people who may not have much cooking experience but want to take advantage of the fresh food and other commodities offered through the three food pantries.

While she was collecting the recipes, Emilee and some volunteers came to the pantry during client hours and handed out samples of zucchini chocolate cupcakes - “They’re amazing,” Emilee gushes.

Also on the sampling menu were banana carrot muffins, watermelon salsa and roasted vegetable pasta.

And then there’s kohlrabi coleslaw. Kohlrabi, a member of the cabbage family, is packed with Vitamin C. The delicate, sweet flesh can either be eaten raw, steamed or stir-fried.

The recipes in Emilee’s cookbook also try to incorporate items that are stocked on pantry shelves as well.

A second cookbook will focus on the stocked ingredients, she said.

Laminated copies of the recipes will be at the pantry, with tear-out sheets of each one so clients can take them home.

“I’ve always liked to cook, so this was fun for me, and it’s been really nice helping them,” Emilee said.

“She is very hardworking and very enthusiastic about what she has done to really see to the needs of hungry families in our area,” said Bianchini.

Emilee’s Simple & Healthy Food Pantry Cookbook will be available to clients of the Bucks County Housing Group’s food pantries.

The cookbook venture is helping Emilee earn her Silver Award from Troop 2459. It’s part of a “Take Action Project” that aids her community and teaches leadership skills at the same time.

The final project will be presented at the Doylestown Food Pantry on Sunday during a Family Event Day hosted by the Scouts and their team volunteers. Clients will have the opportunity to enjoy samples of the some of the 180 recipes that were gathered and other refreshments.

Girl Scout Jenni Kelly, also working on her Silver Award, constructed two benches and two decorative planters for the seating area at the pantry. She’ll be there Sunday presenting them as well.

In July, almost 280 families from Central Bucks as well as Dublin and New Hope availed themselves of food provided at the Doylestown Food Pantry, said Bianchini. That number appears pretty steady for the summer months.

Items the pantry needs include canned and dry goods, household supplies, paper products, baby products (including Good Start baby formula), baking supplies and more.

To donate, contact Bianchini at kbianchini@bchg.org.