Hello, my name is Ria Gersappe, and I am the head chef of the RainyDayChefs. My job as head chef has grown from something simple to involving the community even more with our organization. When first started RDC, my main job was to come up with nutritious, gourmet recipes and we would use these recipes for cookouts with our friends at one of our houses. These recipes were then added to the recipe section of the website. When the pandemic hit, we could not do cookouts together and I had to come up with a creative way to continue RDC volunteers cooking! Along with creating and writing the recipes, I started creating short instructional videos of my cooking to help our volunteers to cook at their own homes. With the help of my videos, I had kids from my neighborhood as young as 5 years old who started cooking with us. Growing up alongside RainyDayChefs over the last 4 years has given me lots of room to experiment with my cooking. On personal level, I’ve learnt to cook with seasonal foods and vegetables as I continue to create my own recipes and eat healthier. This organization has helped me build and enhance important skills such as teamwork, time management and how to communicate effectively, and most importantly, it has taught me the value of community.