Plates for the People is a series of free, monthly cooking classes for people in or seeking recovery, taught by award winning chefs in recovery. The Alano Club of Portland and Ben’s Friends have partnered with some of the country’s best chefs—including Gregory Gourdet, Tommy Habetz, Gina Helive, Gabriel Rucker and more—to bring the recovery community free, accessible classes where students learn about budgeting, meal planning, and how to cooking delicious, healthy dinners they can repurpose for multiple meals to feed themselves and others. Each class begins with the visiting chef sharing about their own journey with cooking and recovery, and concludes with the chef and students sharing a meal, and their stories, with each other. Free follow-up classes will be offered by Feed the Mass, the only non-profit cooking school in Portland.

The Alano Club of Portland is the country’s oldest and largest non-profit recovery organization. In addition to over 100 weekly mutual aid support meetings, the Alano Club offers other recovery resources, like weekly recovery yoga and mindful meditation classes, monthly seminars on topics like brain chemistry and addiction and relationships and recovery, and regular workshops on topics ranging from recovery advocacy to mindful-based relapse prevention. The Alano Club also hosts large-scale sober social events, like our Recovery Art Walk, Recovery Talent Show and holiday community dinners.

Ben’s Friends is the food and beverage industry support group offering hope, fellowship, and a path forward to professionals who struggle with substance abuse and addiction.

Founded in honor of Ben Murray, a lifelong chef who took his own life after struggling with alcoholism for years, Ben’s Friends exists to provide a safe haven and an anonymous, judgment-free forum for workers in an industry that has one of the highest rates of substance abuse in the country.

Ben’s Friends models acceptance and gratitude, and though unaffiliated with either AA or NA, shares an important commonality: the only thing you need to bring through the door is a desire to stop drinking or using.

By providing open ears, hearts, and minds — along with many decades of experience with living sober in the food and beverage industry — Ben’s Friends offers a safe and constructive haven for those grappling with and maintaining sobriety. By coming together, by starting a dialogue, and by acknowledging that substance abuse cannot be overcome in isolation or by willpower alone, Ben’s Friends hopes to write a new chapter in the lives of our country’s talented and dedicated food and beverage professionals and prevent tragedies like that of Ben Murray from becoming all too common.

Feed the Mass is a non-profit cooking education organization based in Portland, Oregon, with a goal of bringing people together. We promote healthy eating and inclusion and strive to inspire everyone to cook meals from scratch. We are the only nonprofit cooking school in Portland. We offer affordable cooking classes to the community because we believe food education and empowerment are crucial. We engage the community to give back so that people from all cultures and backgrounds can come together.