Who doesn’t love a Cook-Off? Delicious food, a great group of people, some good fun, and prizes. What more could you ask for? Home Instead, committed to providing the best home care in Ann Arbor, MI, selected a new, national charitable partnership with Meals on Wheels America to help elevate their efforts to deliver the Power of a Knock™. To celebrate this new partnership, we hosted a Care Professional Cook-Off event, inviting Meals on Wheels representatives from Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti to be our guest judges! About 30 individuals joined us for this event at the local Ann Arbor Senior Center on October 21st. We had the honor of having Courtney Vanderlaan, Director of Ann Arbor Meals on Wheels, and Danni Murphy, Development and Marketing Manager of Ypsilanti Meals on Wheels, join us for this fun occasion.
Seven of Home Instead’s Care Professionals (Care Pros) volunteered to make dishes to be judged based on the EAT score – Execution, Appearance, and, most importantly, Taste!
The recipes prepared were from a variety of backgrounds and were each delicious in their own way. Rosida prepared Yumzetti which was indeed what the name suggests, Manal made Majadra – a rice dish with onions and lentils that won 1st place, Patrick’s Hungarian Stuffed Cabbage was hearty and won 3rd place, Vernice prepared a refreshing spaghetti salad dish, Manal made an elaborate rice dish called Uzi, David’s Vegetable Beef Soup was the perfect dish for the cold, rainy day, and Laila prepared a flavorful dish called Maklooba that won her 2nd place in the contest.
We had a wonderful time highlighting the talents of some of our Care Pros, enjoying lots of delicious food, and socializing with everyone who could make it. Home Instead and Meals on Wheels share many goals, one of which is to help individuals live safely and independently in their own homes with proper nutrition. Our goal is to not only provide a safe and happy environment for seniors to live independently but also for them to have healthy lives and nutritious meals to rely on. Hopefully, this will be just the first of many more enjoyable Cook-Off events to come. We can’t wait to taste the recipes next year!
