Cooking with the Troops

For combat veterans, coming home can be hard, especially for those who went straight from their parents' houses to the military. Cooking with the Troops is a charity started by veterans that organizes barbecues and culinary training for wounded service members. It was founded on the premise that preparing honest food can help ease the transition to civilian life. Cooking provides a break from post-combat pressures, says Ellen Adams, an instructor with the organization and a veteran herself: "I can get in the zone and forget about everything else." The soldiers she works with find that cooking does something else, too: It makes them feel whole again.