SMART's kitchen before the renovation.
Good nutrition is essential for women living with HIV. So, in July 2004, when SMART secured permanent office space, one of the first priorities was setting up a state-of-the-art kitchen. Nothing fancy, but large enough to comfortably accommodate an instructor and a small class. With help from a number of donors, including Home Depot, the kitchen was up and running by January 2005.
Donohue and a SMART participant.
Since that point, SMART Body has flourished. Offered three times each year over a period of eight weeks, SMART Body’s classes have become so popular, they’ve actually begun to spill out of the kitchen into the main office space. So plans to expand the kitchen area, as well as adding a larger freezer and refrigeration unit, are in the works.
The final product.
A department of SMART University – participating women must attend at least some of the University’s classes as a prerequisite, SMART Body’s purpose is two-fold. First, registered dieticians Rosa Donahue or Lena Darrell offer a brief lecture followed by a detailed cooking demonstration. The second part of the each week’s class culminates with a communal meal, which includes that day’s theme, and includes fish or chicken and incorporates vitamin-packed fruits and vegetables.
In SMART's new kitchen.
Cooking instruction, however, would be of little use if the women in the classes couldn’t make these healthier recipes at home. So SMART Body provides a food pantry, containing most and sometimes all of the ingredients needed to make that week’s dish, including spices, tofu, fruits, grains and vegetables.
By the following week’s class, almost 100 percent of the women report that they used their pantry supplies to recreate the previous week’s recipe at home, a true measure of this SMART Body’s continuing success.
