In the almost 12 years we’ve been married, Maggie has had quite a few different jobs. Each of these jobs and their incomes has benefited us significantly; in the early days hers was the primary income while I was in graduate school. Income hasn’t been the only benefit from Maggie’s assortment of jobs: she regularly brought home books for me while at Christianity Today; I was introduced to the realities of suburban poverty and those serving the hidden poor through her case management at Outreach Community Ministries; these days we are eating very well as a result of all Maggie is learning at her two part-time cooking jobs at The Chopping Block and Common Threads.
Last Wednesday I joined Maggie’s team of volunteers and helped with the cooking class she teaches as a Chef Instructor for Common Threads. Her eager class is made up of Chicago Public School students from a South Side elementary school. There are a lot of smart people working to support CPS students in Chicago and it seems like Common Threads is doing their small part to contribute to these students’ success.
Each week the students in Maggie’s class learn a few things about a different country and then cook a healthy meal from that country. And they really cook: knives, flames, the whole deal. At the end of the semester the students receive a cookbook of all of the recipes they’ve cooked.
Seeing Maggie in her element- teaching, cooking, organizing -was a gift and I’m glad to know she gets to work a job like this. I’m also glad to know that these students have such a terrific chef instructor!
David W. Swanson 
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