SOAR Cookbook on sale now

Want to make a Cluckin Good Chicken Salad?

Thanks to The SOAR Cookbook —and more specifically N’Kenge Gonzalez—you can.

“When most people take the first bite, they smack their lips, their eyes open wide and they say bawk. It’s that good and it needed a name to match,” said Gonzalez, a senior international studies student and SOAR Office student assistant who volunteered to coordinate the making of the cookbook. “All of these recipes look so good. As I was reading through them—salads, desserts, and everything in between—to put the cookbook together, my mouth was watering.”

On sale online now, the spiral-bound The SOAR Cookbook: Scrumptious Outpourings of A’maizing Recipes is $20; $15 for students. Cookbooks bought online can be picked up in the SOAR Office, 1038 CASL Building, starting Wednesday. Also beginning on Wednesday, cookbooks will be available for purchase in the SOAR Office.

The Student Outreach and Academic Resources (SOAR) program’s mission is to increase access to post-secondary education for non-traditional adult learners with financial need. All cookbook proceeds benefit the SOAR Support Fund, which helps students meet an unexpected financial hardship or defrays the cost of academic enrichment opportunities they might otherwise be unable to afford. For example, funds may go toward purchasing a textbook, repairing a student’s mode of primary transportation, technology fees and more.

“Nontraditional students juggle many responsibilities, including financial ones. We want to remove as many barriers as we can,” said Ellen Judge-Gonzalez, SOAR director. “But this cookbook goes even beyond fundraising. It’s really about community building.”

Judge-Gonzalez said since SOAR began cooking up the book last spring, students have come to the table to share family stories.

“I overheard them sharing the origin of recipes, comments about favorite dishes grandma made, how they added their own touch to a family recipe. It was good to hear so much conversation about it,” she said. “Food has a way of bringing people together.”

And it’s not just SOAR students. Faculty members, staff, retirees, alumni and SOAR Advisory Board members contributed approximately 200 recipes for the book.

“I couldn’t wait…I’ve already tried [William E. Stirton Professor Emeritus of Anthropology] Dan Moerman’s make-your-own mayo. It is delicious,” said Judge-Gonzalez, who shared her mom’s Polish Kifle, a crescent-shaped cookie, recipe.

And Gonzalez, who graduates this month, can’t wait to put the book on her dining room shelf. An avid home chef, Gonzalez has dozens of cookbooks, but said The SOAR Cookbook will hold a special place on her shelf and in her heart.

“I’m proud to have been a part of this cookbook. There was an investment by so many people and I had the opportunity to create something that brings us all together,” she said. “It took a year, but that is nothing compared to the lasting impact it will have for many of us. With the recipes and family stories, this cookbook can be passed down to the next generation.”