People Inc.Friendsgiving in Action: Cooking, Laughs and Community
Nov 20, 2025
Last week, staff in People Inc.’s Community Habilitation program in Rochester, NY hosted a Friendsgiving themed-cooking demonstration. People served in the program gathered together to make memories, learn new cooking skills and share the experience of creating a holiday meal together.
Scroll through the photos to see the fun in action!
People Inc. staff members and people served in the Community Habilitation program gathered for a cooking demonstration. On the menu? Chicken salad with crackers and no-bake pumpkin mousse.
Community habilitation is a person-centered program that is based upon the idea of skill-building, such as cooking! Participants led the cooking demonstration by whipping, mixing and cleaning dishes. The goal of exercises like these is to gain or maintain independence.
Sirome Smith (pictured right), senior supervisor of community habilitation, said cooking demonstrations like these are important to build skills. “Things like learning a new recipe is special. It is important to do things like this so we can build skills together,” said Smith.
Teagan Culhane led the charge on the chicken salad with crackers. She said likes attending the Community Habilitation program and likes when she goes shopping and bowling.
While People Inc.’s presence is widely known in Buffalo, we also serve Monroe County through various programs, including community habilitation.
Edwin Rosade prepared the pumpkin mousse by carefully measuring out the ingredients and whisking them together.
Now that the cooking demonstration from Sirome is complete, it’s time to dig in!