After working as an emergency medicine physician near Kansas City for more than a decade, Kathryn Miner decided it was time for a change.
A few years after COVID, emergency rooms across the area began to slow down. It gave Miner just enough breathing room to reflect on how she could use her medical expertise in new ways.
That's when she discovered culinary medicine.
"Culinary medicine is centered on nutrition, food safety aspects, teaching kitchens, being a physician and kind of slash pseudo chef," Miner said.
So, Miner walked away from her career in emergency medicine and began putting her new culinary medicine skills to work at a health care company.
She found the work deeply fulfilling. But, shortly after pivoting, Miner ran into a snag. She was laid off from her job.
Instead of stewing on the setback, she leaned in further. She started volunteering at a public library that was running teaching kitchens for medical student groups and patient groups.
Miner loved it so much that she started doing similar work with a local church, Hillcrest Ministries in Lee's Summit, Missouri, which primarily serves women and children experiencing homelessness.
Miner started volunteering in a life skills class for a transitional housing complex, which has a food pantry and kitchen connected to the classroom. She structured the cooking class focusing on plant-based cooking from the items in their pantry. As soon as Miner got in the door, she was eager to see what she had to work with.
"So, I took a tour of their pantry, and I'm like, well, I see a big problem here. Like, you have nothing to flavor this stuff," she said.
There were gravy packets and salt, and that was it. The pantry is mostly canned and boxed items, rarely anything fresh, and lacked a lot of seasonings.
But Miner, being an optimist, looked past what was lacking and leaned into what was possible for the program's clients. She created recipes from scratch using the available food in the pantry and the seasonings she stocked herself.
And the meal she connected that first night using fresh orange juice and peanut butter with cooked spaghetti was a hit.
"They all looked at me like I was crazy. They're like, 'I can't believe you put that orange juice and put it with peanut butter and soy sauce,'" Miner recalled. "But they all had seconds. You know, even the lady that called me crazy got up and had a second helping.
"I felt like that was a home run and really helped me feel like, 'Alright, I'll do this again.'"
And she did. Miner estimates she's led between 30 to 40 classes from various groups and says the fulfillment it brings her is unmatched. She sees her work with Hillcrest as a way to take at least one burden off the plate of someone looking for stable housing.
"I've left just completely elated, completely satisfied that I've helped out at least one person," Miner said. "And it's just left me feeling a lot more satisfied, to be quite honest, than really anything that I've done professionally, even in the emergency department."
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