Hands-On-Food – Riker’s Island

Give Someone a Meal… and Feed Them Once.

Teach Someone to Cook…  and Help Give Them a Life.

For some, being in prison may be the end of the line. For others, it can be a new beginning, thanks to a unique organization called Hands-On-Food. Working in conjunction with the New York Board of Education, a unique culinary program provides two classes per day, Monday through Friday, for women confined at Rikers Island. Lessons, however, are not limited to just cooking techniques. This culinary program (started by Lauren) offers an innovative yet effective method for adolescent young women to learn life skills such as basic nutrition, portion control, and health issues.  But, most importantly, they learn “how food, cooking and eating can be transformed from mechanical movements into acts of self-love and a memorable way to express devotion to others.”

Lauren Groveman founded Hands-On-Food (a non-profit corporation), in September of 2000, after volunteering to teach cooking classes for men living at the correctional facility on Rikers Island, in Queens, New York. Her classes there felt so valuable to her that she wanted to go deeper; she wanted desperately to teach the female population at Riker’s as well, but lacking their own kitchen facility, this was just not feasible. Resolved as ever, Lauren decided to start the Hands-On-Food organization.  She set out to collect enough donations, both monetary and material, to build a special room—a room that would provide discernable light within a place of considerable darkness. Through much hard work, determination and persistence, Hands-On-Food assembled an extremely efficient, fully-equipped teaching kitchen in the Rose M. Singer Pavilion, which is in the high school facility on the female side of Rikers Island.

Lauren’s strong belief is that through consistent exposure to culinary instruction, given in an especially loving way, these troubled women can learn ways to care for themselves—and for the families (current or future) that will inevitably depend on them when they re-enter society. Her true hope is that her “students” on Rikers will learn to see the world as a softer, kinder place. And that they will learn to view the act of thoughtful home cooking as a way to access and utilize a truly positive sense of power—one that can make them feel able, and motivated, to tap into their limitless potential as nurturing, creative and productive humans.