Susan Porter Creates Cooking Network For Older Adults

The former owner of a Cleveland Southern comfort food eatery has started a program that allows seniors to participate in a cooking community to benefit both their culinary skills and social life, reports Cleveland Magazine . Onetime Town Fryer proprietor Susan Porter's network operates out of the Cedar Extension High Rise in Cleveland, a public housing high rise for seniors. Porter has gathered residents at the building for her Recipe Remix program twice a month for 18 months, in partnership with the DigitalC nonprofit and the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority. Porter repurposes familiar comfort foods into healthier alternatives, posts them online for future use, and livestreams cooking routines, in the hope of fostering stronger connections between building residents and the wider community. "Every session highlights a different barrier that needs to be addressed," she said. "Affordability of healthy ingredients, transportation out of food deserts, digital literacy — I want to help find solutions for it all."