Top-ranking US Coast Guard culinary specialist and master chief to lead cooking workshops

Chef Laura Short

Community members in the small Missouri towns of Salem and Hannibal will have the unique opportunity to attend a cooking workshop hosted by one of the highest ranking female chefs in the United States Coast Guard Reserves.

Laura Short, Senior Chief Culinary Specialistat the Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Academy, will be hosting workshops designed to teach community members how they can cook affordable, delicious and healthy meals, right in their own kitchens.

Laura Short, 34, Senior Chief Culinary Specialist at the Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Academy, located at Training Center Petaluma, Calif., will be hosting workshops designed to teach community members how they can cook affordable, delicious and healthy meals, right in their own kitchens.

“Sometimes it’s difficult to eat healthy,” says Short. “Fresh ingredients aren’t always available, or they can be expensive, and time can be a factor for a lot of working families. I’m going to show folks how to do slow-cooker recipes on a budget that are not only delicious, but healthy, too!”

Laura Short’s cooking workshop in Salem, Missouri will be held on Tuesday, April 4 and Wednesday, April 5 at the Salem Community Center @ the Armory from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Laura Short’s cooking workshop in Hannibal, Missouri will be held on Thursday, April 6 at the FACT Office located at 4 Melgrove Ln., Hannibal Mo. 63401 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The demonstrations are hosted by Healthy Hannibal and Healthy Salem, projects of Cover Missouri, a group of organizations working together to help people in Missouri get, keep, and use health insurance. The group understands that some people can’t or don’t want to get health insurance. The goal of the Healthy Hannibal and Healthy Salem projects is to help everyone stay healthier, with or without health insurance. The project is coordinated by Health Literacy Media (HLM), a non-profit that works to improve health by making it easier to understand.

Short will highlight meals that can be thrown into a CrockPot (or other slow cooker) in the morning and are ready to eat by the time you return home from the day’s activities.

Eating healthy does not necessarily need to be expensive or time-consuming, says Short. In fact, in most cases, it is cheaper to make your own food than to eat out, even fast-food meals. “Food is very important, and you shouldn’t have to stress about feeding yourself,” Short says.

Short will also share healthy cooking and shopping tips, are well as stories about preparing healthy meals for hundreds of Coast Guard personnel at a time.

Short says she believes sharing her expertise and skills with others is important to share these cooking skills because “It’s like riding a bike…even years down the road, you can pick up that pot and spatula and say, ‘I’m going to use [these ingredients] to cook something healthy and delicious for me and my family.’ Once you see it, hear it and do it, you’ll always remember it. I just want to help bring that to life.”

Short says she hopes to engage with community members as both a U.S. service member and as a chef: “I’m there to offer service to the community: as a mom, as a sister, as a wife and as a service member. I want to help. Any questions, I will help answer. I am here for them.”