Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between Feed The Region and Chef Steph?

Feed the Region is a project sponsored by Chef Steph that offers free meals to the Community Members of Northwest Indiana. The mission of Feed the Region is to promote connection and provide comfort to our neighbors who are struggling in Northwest Indiana. We rely on community involvement, inviting our neighbors to contribute ingredients and to join us to cook and serve those who could use a hot meal made with love.

Chef Steph is a retail entity whose products support Feed the Region financially whenever donations fall short and to fund the long-term goals of the mission.

Chef Steph (the person) is a family-trained scratch kitchen chef who uses classic comfort recipes and unique flavor profiles to create fresh and frozen dishes to be enjoyed in your own home. Each retail product supports the mission of Feed the Region.

Products can be pre-ordered in the Shop. At this time, all products are pick-up only and can not be shipped or delivered.

Both Chef Steph and Feed The Region operate inside Nana Clare’s Kitchen. Owned by Chris Pavlou and founded and managed by Gina Zieniewicz, this NWI restaurant industry staple has been helping The Region realize it’s food dreams for over 15 years. This kitchen is located at 3907 Calumet Ave #106, Valparaiso, IN 46383

How do I qualify to pick up a Feed the Region Meal?

If you live in Northwest IN and are going through a hard time in any way, you are able to pick up a meal for yourself and your loved ones. These reasons could be: hungry, sick, hurt, new baby, overwhelmed, depression, care-taker, going through something else that we may never understand.

Whenever you are in need of the comfort that a warm meal made with love brings, you are welcome to pick up a meal made by fellow Region Rats that want to see you succeed.

There is no registration needed but every meal is first come, first served. We have the goal of filling 100 bellies each week.

How do I get started volunteering with Feed the Region?

Please click here to see more information about volunteering with Feed the Region.

We want to use the talents that you already have to help bring this service to our neighbors in Northwest, IN. Whether you are a whiz in the kitchen, always pick the best produce at the grocery store, or can bring your creative talents to the community to help fundraise, we need you!

5 mins one time or 5 hours every week, there are so many ways people of every commitment level can assist with our mission.
Besides cooking in the kitchen on Thursdays, we also have

-a Donation Team that helps us sources the dry ingredients and funds for the week.

-a Creative Team of local artists and makers that use what they’re already great at to help us fundraise.

-a Shopping Team that finds the best deals on all ingredients and packaging, shops for them, and delivers to the kitchen on Wednesday nights.

-a Support Team of neighbors who commit to noticing when the people in their lives are going through a hard time, picking them up a meal, and providing an in-person check in. A select few of them also make themselves available to deliver meals when we have neighbors that truly can not reach our services.

Can I pick up a Feed the Region meal for someone else?

Yes! In fact this is our preferred method of pick up. Once you pick up a meal one time, you are automatically part of our Support Team. You are welcome to just use our service the one time, but to continue our mission, we ask that you please think of your neighbors each week. Who is going through a hard time? Who has a new person in their live their caring for? A new job? A death in the family? There are so many things that can happen in a person’s life where they could use a break from figuring out what’s for dinner that night.

Provide an in-person check-in. Personal connection saves lives. Even if you do not know what words to say to someone, showing up with a nice warm meal and just listening is enough.

How can I donate?

Great Question! You can donate in the following three ways:

  1. Donate Ingredients: donate un-opened, un-expired, shelf-stable ingredients listed on the page for This Week’s Meal. Schedule a drop off of your items. Want to get involved a little more? Click here to Become a Drop Off Center and collect ingredients from your neighbors and friends to be picked up by Chef Steph’s Team.

  2. Donate Funds: You can donate funds each week to support Feed The Region. Allocate whether those funds go to purchasing ingredients, packaging, or to an open fund for emergencies or fundraising events. Each week, you can join a meeting seeing how much money the community has raised and where each dollar went to support this week’s meal.

  3. Donate Your Time: Whether you have 5 minutes one time or 5 hours every week to pitch in, there is a spot for you! Please visit our Volunteer Page to learn more.

Do I need to register for a meal? What if I have an issue getting to Nana Clare’s Kitchen on Thursday nights at 7pm for pickup?

While Feed the Region does not have any type of delivery service, we are a group of compassionate volunteers that are committed to helping our neighbors get food. If you have a major need this week and can not pick up on Thursday between 7pm and 9pm in person, please contact us Friday morning.

We will make every effort to get you a meal if there are leftovers from the night before. You must live in Northwest, IN and either do a no-contact pick up (must be home so we can ensure food doesn’t go bad) or you can meet us out front. For safety of all volunteers, we can not enter the home of any of our clients.

While we do not offer more than meals one time a week, we have a variety of contacts and can suggest groups for extra resources if needed.

Why do we cap financial donations at $100 per person per week?

The success of Feed The Region will be in its longevity. Until the program is no longer needed, we will need continued funding to assist our neighbors each week.
Feed the Region will use all funding allocated to that week’s meal for the scheduled event to make sure that every dollar generously donated by the community is seen immediately impacting The Region in a positive way.

For that reason, we ask that you keep your donations small and consistent for the largest impact on your community.

At this time, we are not a registered non-profit and your donations are not tax-deductible.

Where’s the meat?

As a life-long vegetarian herself, Chef Steph knows that you don’t sacrifice flavor or nutrition with a vegetarian dish, but it sure does help the price!

Each meal was created with Whole Complete Proteins in mind, often using a combination of veggie powered proteins to give you all the amino acids your body needs to build on your strength.

The added benefit of plant powered protein is in the added vitamins and fiber which are lacking in animal based proteins.

To stretch the donations as far as they can each week, and to focus on whole nutrient dense ingredients, each meal served at Feed The Region will be meat-free. However, the meals are not Vegan and will sometimes use dairy and eggs.

Each retail food made by Chef Steph will also be vegetarian, but may include dairy and/or eggs.

What about allergies?

All allergens and ingredients for each meal will be disclosed on the label.

The main meal may include: Wheat (gluten), Soy, Sesame, Milk, Eggs, Tree Nuts, or Peanuts.

Please inform our volunteers upon pick up of Feed The Region meals if you have any special dietary concerns and every effort will be made to accommodate them.

Please note that we operate in a shared facility that may also process Wheat (gluten), Tree Nuts, Peanuts, Milk, Eggs, Shellfish, Soy, and Sesame. For this reason, we will never be able to say our products or meals are fully free from food allergens.