Chicken Pot Pie in a Biscuit

This post is written by Shannan Hill.

Shannan is an Asthma Educator at Respiratory Health Association.

What do a CHC member who is behind on service hours, chicken pot pie in a biscuit, and 30 inner city kids from Chicago have in common? A chicken pot pie in a biscuit. Although that may not make much sense right now, for me, it was exactly what I needed at the end of the day.

I was 8.5 months into my 10.5 month term of service and due to unforeseen circumstances (my grandmother passed) I was severely behind on my 1700 service hours. My plan to regain these hours included volunteering at the Oakley Square Healthy Start event, sponsored by Chicago Cares, a non-profit organization that organizes volunteer events throughout Chicago. The Oakley Healthy Start program takes pride in teaching kids to eat healthy and making kid friendly meals.

I had been to these events several times. We cook, the kids talk and cook new and healthy foods, then we leave. The supervisor of the event placed grilled chicken, condensed chicken soup, cooked mixed vegetables, cheese, and raw biscuits on the table and said we were making chicken pot pie in a biscuit

Once the kids sat at my table, our mission, to make chicken pot pie in a biscuit, began. Kids were reading the recipe, dumping this and that into a big mixing bowl and then we came across the raw biscuits. Yes, I said raw biscuits. Each kid chanted,'I wanna do this!"'No me!" because they all wanted the chance to handle the soft and squishy dough. We quickly coated the muffin tin with oil, pressed biscuits into the tins and finally the chicken-vegetable-cheese glob was added last. On a whim, we put our own spin into the pie mixture. Into the oven it went and 30 minutes later,'Viola!" little muffin boats of handheld deliciousness came out. The kids, unknowingly, left with a tasty bit of food containing vegetables, protein and the knowledge of how to make a healthy meal, yumm!

At the end of the event, I hoped the kids had fun and enjoyed themselves, because they were a therapeutic tool for me. We laughed, talked about cooking, and tried a new food. Self-care is very important during the 10.5 months of service with AmeriCorps. If you are not happy and don't enjoy what you do, then you will have difficulty (as one of our CHC mantras say)'Getting Things Done."