Home chefs of all ages are invited to learn how to cook an authentic three-course Italian meal - all without leaving their kitchens.

The Mortel High Hopes for Haiti Foundation will host a virtual cooking class titled "Mangia With Mariella: Cooking With Love to Bring Hope to Haiti" on Sunday, Jan. 10, at 4 p.m. During the Zoom webinar, chef Mariella Amato from Mangia Mangia Italian Grill in Hershey will teach participants how to make the meal while raising money to feed the children of Haiti who are served by the foundation.

Those who attend the virtual class will not be cooking along with the chef, but they will be able to prepare the meal on their own time. "Everyone will get a list of recipes and an ingredients list. They are not cooking while they watch," explained Rachel Bowles, director of operations for the foundation, noting that one of the dishes is a ragu that requires three hours of simmering on the stove.

The virtual cooking class will be free, but attendees will have an opportunity to donate to the foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides education, preventative health care, nutrition and support to children in Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world. "In between the courses we will talk about what we do in Haiti and invite people to support our efforts in Haiti," said Bowles.

The founder and president of the foundation is Dr. Rodrigue Mortel, who served in a number of positions during his 30 years at Penn State Hershey, including chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and founding director of Penn State Cancer Institute. "He is Haitian and founded the foundation after he retired from being a cancer surgeon at Hershey Medical Center," Bowles noted.

Mortel's parents were illiterate, and he believed the best way to give back to his native country was to provide education to students as a means to get them out of the cycle of poverty.

"(Mortel's family) got evicted from a small apartment that they were renting," Bowles said. "They could not pay the $2 rent, and (Mortel) remembered his mom saying this would not have happened if she had gone to school. So it became his mission to go to school and help other people go to school."

The foundation established a preschool, an elementary school and a secondary school for children in Haiti, and it offers literacy and vocational program for adults.

The schools have been educating children since 2000. "In the 2021 calendar year, there will be three anniversaries: the primary school - 20 years; the high school - 10 years; and the preschool - five years," Bowles added. "The cooking event kicks off the anniversary year."

Registration is required to attend the virtual cooking class. To register, readers may visit http://www.highhopesforhaiti.org/events. All registrants will be entered in a giveaway drawing.

For more information about the foundation, readers may visit http://www.highhopesforhaiti.org or http://www.facebook.com/highhopesforhaiti, email info@mortelhhh.org or call 844-466-7835.