Since the end of January 2021, senior Elizabeth Agurto has been donating her time and talents to helping the less fortunate by giving them a warm hearty meal.

The Casserole Project is a service learning project where the students, faculty, and community can come together to help the poor. No prior cooking experiences needed as Agurto guides them in the process step by step.

“Participants will be cooking hearty and nutritious meals on Zoom with me, while I guide them through the process. Then the sisters at the Missionaries of Charity are able to distribute the warm meals to the less fortunate,” Agurto said.

Agurto started the Casserole Project after she visited the Missionaries of Charity and recognized the need for help. She knew that she could not do it alone because of the large amount of food that was needed to help everyone, so she enlisted the help of the school’s community.

“I reached out to the OLLA family and we’ve been able to help a countless amount of people,” Agurto said.

Many of her fellow seniors enjoy taking part in this activity because it helps prepare them for the future as many of them are going away to college and will find these cooking skills useful later.

“Next year I’ll be a freshman at Vanderbilt in Nashville, so I’ll need to cook for myself. Along with helping the less fortunate in our community, Liz’s project has given me and a lot of other seniors more confidence in the kitchen and leaves us a bit more prepared to live independently,” senior Christina Avila said.

Anyone interested in getting involved can sign up for the weekly meetings in a link in the Weekly Wire or by emailing Agurto at [email protected] .