SEARHC offers mobile kitchen class, plans other healthy cooking events

The SEARHC community wellness team is using a mobile kitchen to hold classes on healthy cooking in Wrangell and around Southeast.

A session is available to the public at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 14, at the Wrangell Medical Center. Seating is limited.

"It was bought to just be another resource to talk about health and wellness," department case manager Kathryn Nuckols said of the mobile kitchen. "A fun way to participate in some education (on healthy eating)."

Over the past week, she has hosted several cooking classes in town, mostly in the medical center lobby. The instruction has included general tips on healthy cooking, diabetic meals and food preparation aimed at mothers with young children.

To reserve a space or for more information about the May 14 session, call Nuckols at 907-874-5139.

Acquired by SEARHC over a year ago, the mobile kitchen is on wheels, roughly the size of a desk with table extension leaves. It has a cooktop, oven and sink. It has been used by Nuckols and others in her department to promote healthy cooking while visiting several communities including Angoon, Gustavus and Klukwan.

Last summer, she conducted the first two sessions with the mobile kitchen in Kake. "Everybody had a blast," she said. "We handed out really nice aprons to everyone that participated, bento boxes to bring home leftovers. It was just super fun. I wish I could do it all the time because I love to cook."

"Those small locations don't have a WISEWOMAN that's there all the time," Nuckols said, referring to the women's health program she also represents called Well-Integrated Screening and Evaluation for WOMen Across the Nation. Staff takes turns going to smaller communities, "and now we will take the kitchen cart with us."

She said the classes, put together by dieticians, focus on adjusting eating and cooking habits to people's dietary restrictions, health needs and disease prevention. For example, people who suffer from high blood pressure can create meals with less sodium, substituting salt with alternatives like spices, onions and garlic. For diabetics, that means having less carbohydrates like bread, potatoes, noodles or rice, and more lean meat and vegetables instead.

Nuckols added that different staff focus on different services, such as diabetes education, disease prevention and smoking cessation.

The cart will only be available for Wrangell classes when it's in town, as it will be sent to other communities throughout the region, though its travel will be limited due to the reduced level of state ferry service.

Nuckols will continue to hold healthy cooking classes and events in town, as the parks and recreation department has offered the use of the community center kitchen for regularly scheduled healthy cooking events. "We plan on definitely doing events there throughout the year," Nuckols said.

She hosted a healthy cooking class on May 1 in town for her WISEWOMAN group. Tlingit and Haida community navigator Tammi Meissner said the class spent the hour discussing other ways to modify their eating habits to substitute healthier alternatives. "It was great to have that little community," she said.

Meissner said one lesson involved replacing regular ice cream by creating a healthy milkshake that was a mixture of bananas, coconut and berries. "I'm really excited to have the mobile kitchen. I think there's a lot of great opportunities to use it in the community with instruction on how to eat healthier."

Nuckols' department will next transport the mobile kitchen to Klawock for healthy cooking events on May 16.