The noisy halls of North Dallas High School ring with the sounds of teenagers bustling from class to class as the Cooking for the Crowd van pulls up with a hot meal for the Teen Pregnancy and Parenting Program. The expectant young ladies in this program navigate their high school years as normally as possible while also attempting to graduate and raise their little ones.
The TPP program is available district wide in the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) to help these young mothers to work towards being responsible parents through helpful services such as college counseling, transportation assistance, parenting skills, counseling and much more. Once a month, Cooking for the Crowd stops by with a hot meal so that volunteer community mentors can eat alongside these young women. This simple act lets them know they're not alone in a big world navigating challenges most high schoolers can't fathom.
The food is unloaded and set out for the students because the truth is - a hot meal entices these young women to attend! The services are only effective with active participation. The love and care that this program offers these students is measured by graduation rates, college acceptance and these young women's capacity to be good parents. Cooking for the Crowd is proud to be the hot meal provider for the program for several school in DISD.
Cooking for the Crowd was founded with the simple premise: Love, respect and dignity are foundational to human potential and the fact that small non-profit organizations inefficiently spend much of their time and resources feeding the people they serve, regardless of their actual mission. This essay shares Cooking for the Crowd's mission: to take cooking off TPPP's plate so they can focus on their mission!
May it be so! Thanks for reading the latest installment of a storytelling series where we highlight the missions of the amazing groups we serve.
Photos and story by Sarah Jane Semrad.
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