Cooking in prison: helping teens reach out to prisoners
In the 140-year-old Liebfrauenschule in Vechta,
Germany more than 1,000 girls and young women are being educated. The school
is located in the middle of
town
near the hospital and a prison for women. A few years ago, the assistant
principal developed a project to improve our neighborhood, a project that
Sister Josefa Maria Bergmann and Sister Maria Teresa Jans-Westrup now coordinate.
The sisters go to the prison once a month with a group of six students
and with boxes full of foodstuffs. There they meet a similar-size group of
imprisoned
women.
They cook together and later share a meal. From the beginning, this project
has been a success, because the shared cooking provides an opportunity
for informal conversation to which both groups can contribute. The sisters
and students (see photo above) are not helpers
coming to people requiring help; all are there because they simply enjoy
the meeting. For the imprisoned women it is a variation in their gloomy
everyday life and an opportunity to talk once again with people from the “outside.”
It is important for the students, especially at the first visit, to realize
that in many ways, the women are not so different from themselves. In
addition, there is an unwritten law not to ask about the offenses. On the
contrary,
there is a meeting of human beings with human beings. While peeling potatoes,
kneading pasta dough, or cooking pudding, people of different backgrounds
come closer to one another. So in the end, at the common meal, an almost
comfortable, homey atmosphere dominates, and often they talk about quite
personal subjects. According to the unanimous opinion of the students
who participate,
they themselves profit from this experience at least as much as the imprisoned
women. And at every monthly meeting, the sisters are astonished and thankful
that such a get-together is possible.
