Welcome to “Good Under Pressure!”
Featuring Prisca & Castlen
“Good Under Pressure” features people who have been caught being good under pressure! Community is incredibly important to us, along with helping others. The people you’ll read about have found ways to shine a light on others through their pressure cooking 🙂
Today you’ll hear from Prisca and Castlen. Hurricane Harvey has brought devastation and tragedy to many, but these two moms in Houston and Dallas have come up with a creative way to help lessen the pressure on families, and help provide a way for them to enjoy home-cooked meals.
Their Story
Prisca: I am a mom of four living in Dallas. A neighbor of mine has an Instant Pot and raves about it. After thinking about it for a while, I finally bought mine just over two years ago on Amazon Prime Day. I’ve used it to make all sorts of things like yogurt and family favorites like Jamaican Rice and Peas (read beans and rice).
At a conference I recently attended, a friend who is part of a civic group in Florida shared with me about how her group had been helping families by teaching them to use Crock Pots. It was a great way to go beyond the standard food drive and really help hungry families find a sustainable way to cook. I thought it was a really great idea and would be even better with Instant Pots!
That was right as Harvey was hitting. Castlen, a mom of two from Houston, and I were at the conference together, and she left early to get back to her kids. When I got home, I kept seeing Castlen’s Facebook posts about everything she was doing to help her friends and neighbors who had been flooded. Sitting in Dallas, dry and basically oblivious, I started to wish I could do something to help. Then I remembered the Crock Pot story.
I reached out to Castlen to see if she thought Instant Pots would be helpful to people who had been flooded. Castlen was not familiar with the Instant Pot and at first didn’t know whether the idea would work. But when she contacted some of her neighbors, the response was very positive. Lots of people were eager to get Instant Pots and thought it would really help their situation. Many folks are living in hotels or in campers parked on their driveways, and they don’t have a good way to cook. They are stuck eating out every meal, which is inconvenient and expensive.
Castlen and I decided to reach out to our network, and we raised about $1500 in one day. Castlen was able to buy 27 IPs, which she is now delivering.
I also wanted to give people some guidance to get them started, so I decided to post a request for recipes on the IP Community Facebook page. I was hoping to quickly gather 10-20 recipes. The post kind of went nuts.
Castlen: The folks we have identified are primarily moms who live in neighborhoods devastated by the floods. Many of them still have water in their homes today. As we have delivered them to the families, we have been met with such gratitude. It seems like a simple thing to do, especially when you consider many of these people lost everything, but they are so appreciative for something that will hopefully make their lives a little bit easier, and from strangers they have never met. All around it’s been a very neat project, and thank Prisca for the awesome idea!!
How Can I Help Prisca and Castlen?
These amazing ladies have set up a YouCaring page where you can make a direct donation. 100% of everything sent will go directly toward purchasing more Instant Pots for families in need. You can access the page directly here. If you’d prefer to have an Instant Pot sent directly to them, you can email Castlen for a shipping address (know that delivery times are slower in the area at the moment).
We hope you found inspiration in Prisca and Castlen’s story – either to help, or to find your own way to be “Good Under Pressure” 🙂 Until next time!
-Danielle
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