Christina Nifong
Cook Your Culture organizers, from left: Jessie Coffman, Olivia Body, Karla Christian, Silvija Butkeraityte and Sarah Duran-Ballen, plan and visit at Duran-Ballen’s house.
A group will host a free international potluck on June 22.
Even though it’s a week night. Even though these five women have 10 youngish children between them. Even though they all have jobs and chores and volunteer responsibilities, they have gathered at Sarah Duran-Ballen’s home to share wine and dinner and a good laugh and all that’s happened since the last time they met.
They do this every so often — eat and hug and catch up — as do women all over Roanoke, all around the world.
But this group doesn’t live in the same neighborhood or have kids at the same school. They didn’t grow up together or meet through a sports team or book club. They found each other because they went searching for people from other places. They believed that humanity and motherhood would be enough to connect them even if they shared nothing else.
Turns out, they were right.
Their friendship began in early 2017, when they met at a Roanoke City Market Building meeting called in response to anti-immigrant policies at the national level. That night the Roanoke Refugee Project — a nonprofit whose mission is to support Roanoke’s refugees — was born.
So was another group, one with a smaller, more focused mission. The Roanoke International Moms Initiative wasn’t about raising money or providing services or changing policies. The idea was simply to form a moms play group that gathered Roanoke mothers and children from across the globe.
Georgianne Vecellio
At Cook Your Culture, expect dishes made by volunteers and food donated from area international restaurants.
Duran-Ballen and Jessie Coffman became RIMI’s founders. They knew they wanted to help refugees, immigrants, anyone who had moved to Roanoke from some place else. They figured getting together, getting to know one another, would be the way start.
“We just thought: What do we all have in common? What can we build on? How can we be the warmth?” explains Duran-Ballen, who is married to an immigrant from Ecuador.
So they organized park play dates and moms nights out. At one event Karla Christian, born in Mexico and raised in Texas, fashioned a craft where kids picked up a felt bird, then searched for twigs and sticks and other bits of the outdoors to make a nest for it. At the end, she shared a related Mexican poem. It was a hit.
Another mom led a hike, where she taught the group nature words in her native Slovak.
As momentum grew, the group reached wider. They planned an international potluck dinner for June 2017. They called it Cook Your Culture. It was a way for families to share their favorite dishes — and their stories.
Organizers reserved space at Community High School. They publicized their idea on the RIMI Facebook page and in local media. They asked for food donations from area international restaurants as well as from those attending the dinner. They had no idea who would come. But as the food began arriving and the line began forming, their excitement grew.
Georgianne Vecellio
The first Cook Your Culture event was held in June 2017 at Community High School. The second will be held at Mountain View Recreation Center June 22, 2019.
In the end, an estimated 45 cultures were represented. Dishes and eaters with a cultural connection to Lithuania, Mexico, Ukraine, Afghanistan, India, the Philippines, Italy, Germany, Iran showed up. The event raised $1,000 in donations, which went to the Roanoke Refugee Partnership. All leftover food was taken to the homes of refugee families supported by the partnership.
“It was just so good,” says Duran-Ballen. “It was all part of a cycle of so much goodness.”
In the two years since that night, the organizers’ lives have changed, their children have grown, the regular get-togethers have slowed. But the friendships forged in those first months are strong. Whenever these women gathered, they talked about pulling off another Cook Your Culture event.
On June 22, those plans become reality. This time, Cook Your Culture will be held at Mountain View Recreation Center (also known as Fishburn Mansion). There’s more space there. It’s on a bus line.
This time there will be kids crafts: make-and-take maracas representing Mexico, finger puppets from Ecuador, necklaces from Africa.
A giant world map will again be posted, with push pins for every participant to highlight their country of origin.
Georgianne Vecellio
Participants in the 2017 Cook Your Culture event identified with 45 different cultures from around the world.
Like last time, the main event will be food from all corners of the globe — some of it donated by local ethnic restaurants, some made by volunteers. All of it will be free, though organizers are asking participants to register at eventbrite.com. Donations are encouraged. Proceeds will again benefit the Roanoke Refugee Partnership.
This time, the group has plans to create a cookbook from donated recipes as a way for the cultural exchange to resonate beyond one night.
“What’s really cool is that we’re highlighting the local diversity,” says Duran-Ballen. “Every cultural dish you’ll see, there’s a person behind that.”
This night, at Duran-Ballen’s house, five women are sharing a meal and their stories. They’re celebrating friendships that grew out of their community’s diversity.
They’re hoping in a few weeks you’ll join them to do the same.
For more information about the event, check out Cook Your Culture: Roanoke on Facebook, see their event page to learn more or email organizers at: cookyourculture@gmail.com.
About the Writer:
Christina Nifong is a writer with a decades-long career profiling interesting people, places and ideas. She’s also a committed locavore and mother to three kids, four chickens and one very sweet kitty. Find more of her work at christinanifong.com.