Hello my name is Kim Maas and I am a dietetic intern with Utah State University. I recently completed a second bachelor’s degree in nutrition at the University of Hawaii, after finding my passion for nutrition while working with OASIS of San Diego. At OASIS I was given the opportunity to help start their Active Generations program, an intergenerational program to help fight childhood obesity. I loved my time with the program and knew right away I had a desire to help not only children, but also families understand more about nutrition and their health.
During my time in Hawaii, I worked at Hawaii Child Nutrition Programs, where I was able to learn more about school nutrition. This was a great opportunity that allowed me the chance to learn more about the Hawaii school system and school nutrition as a whole. I also met my husband there, whose career has now brought us to St. Louis. I am excited about our new adventure here in St. Louis and couldn’t have asked for a better way to be introduced to our new hometown than at Operation Food Search.
Operation Food Search is an incredible organization that feeds around 190,000 people within the community per month and educates many more through Cooking Matters. With the mission to fight hunger, a passionate staff and volunteers, Operation Food Search is making a daily impact on the St. Louis community by assisting those in need.
Operation Food Search provides a variety of programs, some of which I was able to assist with including Cooking Matters for kids, teens, adults and parents. Cooking Matters provides the participants a chance to learn about nutrition and healthy cooking, as well as participate and prepare healthy dishes. It’s a great program with a fun learning environment, where I found both children and adults full of excitement! Especially when anxiously waiting to find out the recipes for the week. My favorite session was when a group of adults were given the “What’s left in the pantry” challenge. I am not sure if it was my favorite due to being a guest judge or the delicious dishes both teams created, either way I was impressed! Operation Food Search also offers grocery store and pop up store tours. If you haven’t experienced a grocery store tour I highly recommend that you do! It is an excellent way to learn more about the food that you are adding to your cart!
Overall, the past two weeks gave me a chance to learn more about my new hometown, to explore the area, learn, teach and be apart of a team that St. Louis is very lucky to have. I found every day to be filled with learning, building relationships both in the office and out in the community and fun! I plan to continue volunteering with Operation Food Search as much as I can and to share how other community members can as well. If you haven’t joined the OFS team already, I highly recommend that you do!
