Dietician in Iowa Helps Veterans Spark Memories Through Food

In Marshalltown, Iowa , a group of veterans get to chat and reminisce, not about their time in the service, but over the universal experience of food .

For one hour a month, clinical dietician Christine Jacobson leads vets at the Iowa Veterans Home on a journey through food.

“We try to focus on hands-on experience, sensory experience,” she told KCCI. “This group is about uniting a bunch of food enthusiasts here at the Iowa Veterans home."

The veterans are having a good time as well as getting a culinary education.

The tastes and smells can transport the residents to another time and place.

"Food could be very powerful, right? It connects them to their families and to memories and to experiences that can be very positive for them and that are worth preserving,” Jacobson said.

Veteran Mike Miller said that the aromas conjured up thoughts and feelings of his younger self, specifically of one tradition in particular.

“Sunday dinners because I would come home after Sunday mass,” he said. “The house filled with the smell of roasting chicken and rosemary. That's something you just don't forget. Those were some very good memories."

Together, these veterans are creating new memories, and trying delicious recipes.

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