Gini Mazman explains why she is working to bring “Cooking Matters,” a program that offers culinary education to food bank recipients, to local food pantries.

The “decisions people make about food is part of a maze of decisions people make that effect their whole life,” she says. So a healthy change in the kitchen can have a profound impact.

Cooking Matters, sponsored in part by ConAgra and Walmart, is part of the national organization “Share Our Strength,” dedicated to ending childhood hunger.

Cooking Matters will run a 6-week program in Lynn for food pantry participants. Each week will feature a guest chef who will demonstrate a healthy and tasty meal made with that week’s donated ingredients. Donated items are often random, says Mazman, and perhaps one week’s bag of groceries will feature squash. In an Iron Chef-like twist, the guest chef will then cook with squash.

Swampscott’s own Gregg Brackman, the Chef at G on Humphrey Street, is already scheduled for one week’s session.

The program will also run education classes, geared to heads of households. Participants will learn about how to shop and prepare healthy food while stretching a dollar.

Mazman, who has an MBA from Northeastern University as well as a graduate certificate in nonprofit management from Suffolk University, has worked the last 10 years in the social service field. She has just formed a non-profit—“The Haven Project”— dedicated to underserved communities in Lynn, in partnership with the East Coast International Church, “ECIC.”

ECIC has been a Lynn presence for over 10 years; they spent over 7 years in the Ingalls Elementary School Auditorium before purchasing a multi-story property on 65 Munroe Street.

The ECIC pantry distributes food on Friday mornings from 9:30-11, on a first come, first served basis. They have on average 80 heads of households coming to pick up food, which then feeds, on average, 250-300 people per week.

In the winter, 85 percent of the food comes from the Food Bank, and the remainder from private donations. In the summer, the Lynn Food Project donates what is left over from its weekly Farmer’s Market. According to ECIC’s Assistant Pastor Josh Kamsiewicz, numbers swell in the summer because people really appreciate the fresh fruit and vegetables the Food Project provides.

Mazman and Kamsiewicz explain that the numbers they serve and the variety of the food is limited for two reasons. First, ECIC lacks a large freezer in which to store donated food. Thus, they can only distribute what they can pick up the day before. Second, they need more able-bodied people to help with food pick-up.

They are actively looking for a freezer in order to store more food, volunteers to help with pick-up of donated items, and donations of food.

Mazman is also looking for volunteers to help run the Cooking Matters program. Training is scheduled for Jan. 24, from 6-8, and is free. A few more chefs, anyone with knowledge in nutrition, and helpers who just want to be part of the program are all welcome.

For more information or to volunteer for Cooking Matters or the ECIC food pantry, please contact Gini Mazman at ginimazman@comcast.net