{"id":5392,"date":"2025-10-17T07:11:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T07:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/5392\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T07:11:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T07:11:18","slug":"cooking-for-a-cause-in-berks-county-spotlight-pa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/5392\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooking for a cause in Berks County \u2022 Spotlight PA"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared in Good Day, Berks \u2014 Spotlight PA\u2019s<\/a> free daily newsletter for Berks County and your daily dose of Berks County essentials. Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This week’s inaugural Community Spotlight honoree is Florence \u201cFlo\u201d Pagan, a cook and kitchen manager at Opportunity House, an emergency shelter that’s been helping Reading’s homeless population since 1984.<\/p>\n

Pagan told us about kitchen creativity, that time she cooked for over 85 people using just the bare essentials, and her Berks County favorites.<\/p>\n

Our conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.<\/p>\n

Good Day, Berks: Where do you live?<\/p>\n

Pagan: Reading, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Tell us about your family.<\/p>\n

Daughter, Jeanette, her fianc\u00e9, Eric, and grandchildren Phanlon, 5, and Fennec, 1. I have six sisters who are my best friends.<\/p>\n

Tell us about your job and what you like about it.<\/p>\n

I am the cook and kitchen manager at Opportunity House. I love what I do. I get to be very creative with what we have on hand\u2014what\u2019s donated by cooking groups or through Helping Harvest.<\/p>\n

My coworkers and clients are my family and make me feel so appreciated every day. I know that when I provide a meal for our clients, I can feel the love, gratitude, and thanks they give me. They are so very special to me. The amazing volunteers I\u2019ve met who have a passion for providing a meal and friendship has been very rewarding.<\/p>\n

Tell us about a challenge you faced.<\/p>\n

During the kitchen renovations I cooked for two months without a real kitchen. I cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner for over 85 people using just a microwave, toaster oven, tabletop burner, and air fryer.<\/p>\n

Favorite place to eat in Berks County and why?<\/p>\n

Austin\u2019s. Excellent service, high quality food, and a consistent menu.<\/p>\n

Where would you take a visitor in Berks and why?<\/p>\n

The Pagoda. That\u2019s what we\u2019re known for. I\u2019d also take them to West Reading to explore the great stores and restaurants. There\u2019s always something good going on there.<\/p>\n

While You\u2019re Here<\/p>\n

Spotlight PA\u2019s nonprofit reporting is a free public service, but it depends on your support. Give now to ensure it can continue.<\/p>\n

What book, poem, song, or artwork is meaningful to you?<\/p>\n

“Imagine” by John Lennon. The song is meaningful and has a great message. “Smile” by Nat King Cole. That song always makes me smile if I am sad.<\/p>\n

Who in your life has had a great influence on you?<\/p>\n

My mother. She was an outstanding cook, and I have fond memories of us working together in our family restaurant.<\/p>\n

Know someone who deserves the Community Spotlight? Tell us<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This positive news for Berks County is made possible thanks to a generous grant from the United Way of Berks County, which is celebrating 100 years of service to the community. Learn more here<\/a> | Become a supporter of Spotlight PA here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article originally appeared in Good Day, Berks \u2014 Spotlight PA\u2019s free daily newsletter for Berks County and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-5392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}