Saanich service celebrates 30 years with comfort food

A new celebratory cookbook is jam-packed with tasty, time-tested recipes from seniors in Saanich.

The Comfort Food Cookbook celebrates 30 years of Saanich Volunteer Services Society and is a labour of love for Louise Taylor. A longtime volunteer herself, she’s a proponent of the work SVSS does promoting independent living and enhancing the quality of life for residents with community resources and connections. Taylor has worked as a driver, and for years has been a companion for a now 98-year-old woman.

“It’s important to support your community and make a difference in the lives of seniors,” she said.

She’s active in a couple of different groups that meet once a month and feature guest speakers on a variety of topics – alongside goodies of course.

So when it came time to talk ways to celebrate the good works, and maybe raise some funds along the way, Taylor leaned on her love of cooking, and the expertise of their clientele – whose average age hovers around 85.

She got on the phone and called 205 clients.

“I had wonderful conversations with them and some of them wanted to share their recipes and some were ‘well I don’t cook much anymore’,” she said.

The result of her hundreds of phone calls was 114 recipes from clients, family and friends.

A soup called Thai One On and cornbread muffins were the hit of a garden party to celebrate the 30 years this summer. A few more recipes appeared at the book’s launch Nov. 17 where more than 30 books at $25 a pop went out the door in the first two hours.

With the launch poised just ahead of a major gift-giving season, Taylor plans to man a table for book sales at Cedar Hill Recreation Centre on Friday afternoons around 1 to 3 p.m.

Visit saanichvolunteers.org to learn more about the organization.

christine.vanreeuwyk@blackpress.ca

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