Members of St. Thomas’ Students for Global Health club are working on creating and printing cookbooks for homeless people and children at risk.

The club is distributing the cookbooks to People Serving People, a Twin Cities-based organization and homeless shelter. According to the organization’s mission statement, they “help homeless and at-risk children and their families manage crisis situations and build a strong foundation for their long-term success.”

Lilly Effertz, a junior biology of global health major and president of Students for Global Health, organized the effort for their club service project. It is a requirement for clubs at St. Thomas to complete a volunteer project with a community partner each semester.

“We were kind of struggling to find a community partner that paired well with global health, because in Minnesota that doesn’t seem like a very global reach,” Effertz said. “But the way we thought about it is to start locally and then kind of build out.”

The five recipes in each cookbook are “easy and healthy,” according to Karleen Kuehn, Students for Global Health vice president. The club spent time finding recipes online on sites such as Pinterest, along with obtaining recipes from club members’ families.

“They’re very simple meals, like the basics you would have in your pantry or fridge,” junior Kuehn said. “But especially staple foods like rice, beans and vegetables.”

Each club member made their own cookbooks, each with different items on it.

“I personally made a snack cookbook with different proteins, dairy, veggies and fruit,” Effertz said. “Other people did a dinner cookbook and some people did a breakfast and lunch (cookbook).”

The club plans to print the ten cookbooks they created on their own, a cheaper alternative to using an outside printing company.

“It’s kinda expensive, our club doesn’t have that much money,” Kuehn said. “St. Thomas gives us a lot of printing credit, so we should be okay.”

After printing, each cookbook will then be placed into 3-ring binders and then will be distributed at the People Serving People shelter in Minneapolis.

Justin Amaker can be reached at justin.amaker@stthomas.edu.