My summer at Brainfood

From our Guest Bloggers  and summer interns Zoe Middleton & Matt Grunewald...

My time as one of Brainfood’s Summer Institute interns has been incredibly rewarding.   I was generously given the support I needed to flourish and the flexibility to combine youth development and cooking with my interest in wellness and food access. Even more notable than the easy-going and civilized office culture at Brainfood were the students that filled our kitchen between June and August. It is the time spent with any of our twenty students – either en masse, in smaller groups or individually – watching them grow and challenge their thinking while kneading pizza dough, washing dishes, perusing a farmer’s market or sitting down to a meal that truly thrilled me.  The progress they made in the space of five weeks as chefs and young adults was inextricably linked and profound.  In many ways, I grew alongside these students, becoming more committed to my career interests of public health and community development as well as learning how to communicate and execute fieldwork.  My great wish for our Summer Class of 2011 and myself is that the lessons of Brainfood (whether imperceptible or obvious) resonate long after the final leftovers from Open Kitchen Night are eaten.

- Zoe Middleton, Brainfood Summer Intern
Zoe is a student at Michigan State University who is living in DC for the summer

First off I would like to start by saying that I found this to be an incredible and personally rewarding internship.  When I first heard about this opportunity, I thought that I was simply going to be teaching teenagers how to cook, and running to the grocery store for food.  While these were indeed integral parts of my job, there turned out to be so much more to this program than that.  I saw great change in the attitudes and proficiency levels of the students that I helped to instruct, and witnessed first hand the kind of positive impact a proactive program like this can have on the social skills and confidence of young adults.  These positive outcomes were not things that I expected to see when I applied for this job, and only excited and motivated me more to be a better instructor and person every day that I had the opportunity to come to work.

I anticipated seeing changes in the skills of the participants that I was instructing, but what I did not expect was that I would also be improving myself, both in my cooking skills, and patience and ability as a worker.  The permanent staffers at Brainfood made me feel like an integral part of the program staff, despite my short seven week involvement, and allowed me to feel comfortable being myself and to contribute equally to class discussions and activities.  While I was helping others to become more confident and assertive, the staff at Brainfood was doing the same with me.  I know that I have experienced great personal growth as an intern at Brainfood and would recommend anyone who is interested to join this program, either as a volunteer, intern, or participant: it is an incredible program that offers learning experiences for everyone, not just the young adults that it aims to serve.

- Matt Grunewald, Brainfood Summer Intern
Matt is a recent graduate of Michigan State University and is a native of the DC metro area.