The Treehouse Center Kitchen Project

My name is Christopher Cooke and I was a chef for most of my life but now work for a broadline food distribution company.  I work as a provider of goods and consultant to local, independently owned restaurants.  This past week I called upon a facility that houses girls, from families and governmental agencies that are in crisis situations and provide a wide variety of diagnostic and treatment services.  The girls are between the ages of 5 thru 12, and currently have 25 little ones under their care.  They rely solely rely on donations and government funds and are doing an incredible job with what they have. Being a father myself of two little girls, the youngest 2 and my oldest 12, it was just minutes into my initial meeting with the owner that I knew the universe lead me their way for a reason. They currently rely on local food banks and struggle organizing an efficient menu due to the unpredictable nature of the food donations.  They find themselves running daily to the local grocery attempting to provide healthy, yet affordable meals for these little ladies. I immediately saw an opportunity to help.    An opportunity to help establish an organized meal program that will take the stress out of mealtime, and most importantly, allow the amazing care takers to put so much more focus on spending time with the children.  As a chef, I truly believe that sitting down to a good meal with friends and family is good for the soul.  I have one major hurdle.  Their kitchen facilities are not equipped to store the foods necessary for this kind of food program.  The center was constructed from 3 neighboring duplexes that were connected to create one large housing structure.  However, due to funding, that is where the construction ended.  They have been operating for the last 9 years just like you would operate your household cooking and grocery shopping.  All 3 meals a day are prepared out of ONE residential kitchen, with ONE residential refrigerator, and your standard kitchen cabinets for storage.  In addition to storage, there are some repairs needed to countertops, floors and the dining area. In order to bring in the bulk food items required we must have the storage capacity. Most importantly, a commercial reach-in deep freezer, and cooler big enough to hold a weeks’ worth of the frozen goods needed, and wire foodservice racks built to store large #10 cans of vegetables and gallon sized condiments, in addition to the repair work.  As I walk through the home, I try to imagine what these poor girls have experienced in their home life that led to the state moving them away from their parents or guardians.  Then I imagine my little girls… if I was telling you this out loud, this is wher juste I would tear up and pause haha… There is just something about being a girl-dad that makes even the toughest of us turn into big ole Teddy Bears the second our baby girl is born, and we know that we would do anything to protect them.  These little girls weren’t lucky enough to have that Poppa Bear protection, and that isn’t their fault.  This is where I need help. There just isn’t the funding for a project like this, and I am trying to find any donations to help.  I just know in my heart that this is the mark I was born to make on the world, and I refuse not give these kids every ounce of my efforts.  Any help at all could change the lives of these little girls in a positive way when they have experienced so many negative changes already.   Thank you so much for reading this and even the smallest contribution or positive vibe could be the difference.