EMK Press, a publisher of tools and resources for families formed by adoption, foster care or kinship, is currently inviting submissions from foster care teens, alumni and adoptees to share recipes and food-related stories for our cookbook, Recipes for Success.
This could be a meal that reminds you of a special time in your life or a recipe of the first meal you learned to cook when you moved out on your own. We also welcome your words of wisdom – things you wish other people had taken the time to share with you during important moments of your life.
As foster youth and alumni, we are all connected through our shared experience. We are a community through our common history, though at times that history is one that some of us would rather not revisit.
Over the past couple years I’ve spent a great deal of time traveling the country to share the story of my time in foster care. Stories can achieve nothing if no one tells them. This is why I’ve chosen to take my experiences and use them to make people laugh, cry and learn about the foster care system. Through educating each other, and ourselves we can improve not only the system itself, but also the lives of those who are a part of the foster care community.
When we relate to one another, we become less alone.
This collection of recipes and stories has great potential to build-up our community and bring us together. All the proceeds from the book will go directly toward funding Thanksgiving celebrations for youth and starting and supporting Foster Care Alumni chapters across the country.
Share a recipe. Share a story. Share yourself with the members of your community. You never know who will feel a little less alone because we all reached out. Families have conversations and share themselves at the dinner table. Though we may not all sit at the same table, we are all one big foster family sharing our stories and sitting down together for dinner.
Visit www.emkpress.com/recipesforsuccess.html for submission information.
Patrick Burns is a playwright, actor, musician and foster care alumnus.