Author: Gao Vang
At the Community-University Health Care Center (CUHCC), a cooking class is offering more than just lessons in healthy eating—it’s providing a recipe for connection, confidence, and whole-person wellness. CUHCC currently offers two cooking class opportunities: Cooking Matters through UMN Extension and the Adult Rehabilitative Mental Health Services (ARMHS) cooking group.
CUHCC’s ARMHS program, which serves adults living with serious mental illness, has been offering skills building groups for over a decade on various topics, and cooking has been among the most popular. ARMHS group participants learn basic cooking skills, such as cutting with a knife, temperature control, food preparation methods, and using different ingredients. Additionally, participants gain knowledge around food safety, time management, healthy eating, and how to socialize in a group setting. The group is led by one of ARMHS mental health practitioners and is offered weekly.
CUHCC also offered UMN Extension Program’s Cooking Matters class in Spanish. Beginning in March, seven patients participated in the six-session series. To reinforce skills learned in class, each participant went home with the recipe-of-the-day, homecooked food or a bag of groceries so they could replicate the recipe on their own. This hands-on, take-home model reinforces CUHCC’s focus on empowering patients beyond the exam room.
In both groups, participants not only learn how to prepare simple, budget-conscious meals that support chronic disease management—they also build critical life skills, reduce social isolation, and gain confidence in the kitchen.
“This is part of CUHCC’s broader commitment to whole-patient care,” said Lara Pratt, CUHCC’s director of advancement. “We’re addressing much more than what happens during a clinic visit. We’re working to support food security, self-sufficiency, and emotional health—all of which are deeply interconnected with physical health.”
These programs align with CUHCC’s larger chronic disease prevention efforts, particularly for patients with diabetes and hypertension. It also complements CUHCC’s Fresh Food Wednesdays, a weekly event that provides patients and community members with access to free fresh produce, further addressing food insecurity and nutrition in the surrounding neighborhoods.
At CUHCC, care is not confined to a clinic—it’s in the community, in the kitchen, and in every effort to help patients thrive.