Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.

Cooks on Call program provides comfort through food



By Danielle Paine

Reminder Assistant Editor



WILBRAHAM Be it by pizza or pot roast, the Wilbraham Junior Women's Club knows how to help a friend in need to stay off of their feet and out of the kitchen.

"If you have a family, you want to make sure that they're needs are taken care of, even if you can't do it," President Lisa M. Vartanian, of Wilbraham, said about the club's Cooks on Call program.

It all began seven years ago as a simple gesture of kindness when some of the club's 70 women delivered meals to a fellow member while she underwent chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer.

Today, they do the same for each other after births, deaths and surgery. In a good year, no one needs the help, in a busy one, they have lent their kitchens to as many as six.

"While it depends on the situation, everyone usually makes something that is easy to drop off and easy to reheat," Vartanian said. "Some members, who don't have the time to cook, even offer to bring pizza or call a caterer."

Past recipients of the program are often so overwhelmed by the generosity of their friends and neighbors that they later volunteer to coordinate the program.

"It is very nice," said Kristen Curley of Wilbraham. "I had a baby just four months after I first started with the club, and I got two weeks worth of meals."

The Wilbraham Junior Women's Club is a service organization, founded in 1979, that works with many charities in the area to improve and aid their community.

For more information or to inquire about membership, call (413) 596-2742 or visit www.wilbrahamjuniorwomens.org.