Students were taught how to prepare heart-shaped French toast using ingredients found in the on-campus food pantry in the E building lounge at a Valentine’s themed cooking workshop on Feb. 15.
The food pantry is called the Viking Vault and is located in the E building of the LAC campus and the Q building of the PCC campus where all LBCC students are welcome to get free groceries and snacks.
The French toast was made with white bread, eggs, milk and cinnamon, which was then cut up and toasted over a small pan.
The event was hosted by CASA Student Success Coaches Tammy Nguyen and Kanika Sood, who are currently graduate students working on their master’s in education.
“We’ll usually practice a little bit before we have the workshop just so we know what we are doing, but this time we didn’t because this time we had Monday off and we’re not here on the same schedule but it turned out really well,” said Student Success Coach Sood.
CASA, better known as the Basic Needs Program, offers students the support and resources people need to survive.
They provide emergency housing programs for students at risk of homelessness, emergency rental & utility assistance that can pay direct housing costs and utilities, the campus Shuttles and the free LB Transit Bus Pass.
“The best part of the job is interacting with students and being able to have workshops where we can have a group of people and students to talk to. Also being able to share all of our resources,” said Nguyen.
Most students in the audience had never tried French toast, but Success Coaches Ngyuen and Sood wanted to make something easy and convenient for students.
The coaches engaged students with Valentine’s Day-related questions such as asking how they spent their Valentine’s Day, whether they’ve made any friends in college and if they have anyone special they wanted to share this recipe with.
The lounge at the time of this event was incredibly noisy, making it hard for students to give the presenters their full attention.
Despite being on the quieter side, they still did their best to listen attentively to the presenter and answer their questions.
“I’ll probably check out the Viking Vault, and maybe someday I’ll try this recipe,” said LBCC student, Christopher Calix.
“For the first workshop, we made tuna salad sandwiches, and then for the second one we actually did a Lunar New Year workshop and Tammy made Vietnamese egg,” said Sood.
This was the third installment of “Cooking with Casa,” with the prior cooking segment having been more successful with a higher turnout rate compared to this time where five people showed up.