{"id":24681,"date":"2015-06-29T17:57:55","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T21:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=24681"},"modified":"2025-07-11T13:54:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T17:54:33","slug":"how-a-mennonite-college-student-earned-a-years-tuition-selling-the-mennonite-community-cookbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/how-a-mennonite-college-student-earned-a-years-tuition-selling-the-mennonite-community-cookbook\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Mennonite college student earned a year\u2019s tuition selling the ‘Mennonite Community Cookbook’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summer\u2019s here. Know any students looking for summer jobs?<\/p>\n

\"Eugene\"<\/a>
Eugene Souder<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The summer when Mary Emma Showalter\u2019s now classic “Mennonite Community Cookbook<\/a>” was released in 1950, various college students sold\u00a0the cookbook as a way to make money for their college expenses.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Eugene Souder was one such entrepreneur who had about 15 young women and men selling cookbooks under his loosely organized effort.<\/p>\n

He says the John C. Winston Company (publishers in conjunction with the early \u201cMennonite Community Association\u201d in Scottdale, Pennsylvania) put out a notice that they were looking for someone to round up students who could sell the cookbook to acquaintances, church members, friends or neighbors\u2014and perhaps door-to-door.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I saw\u00a0that initial notice put out for sales reps, but someone recommended me. So they came recruiting me,\u201d recalled Eugene in a phone interview recently.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was simple\u2014I had one or two meetings of interested persons at\u00a0Eastern Mennonite College, inviting them to earn some extra money that summer,\u201d said Eugene, who at the time was between his junior and senior years of college.\u00a0 \u201cIt was fun to recruit. That was basically all I had to do. I got a commission off of each sale, and the total that year was enough to cover my expenses for my final year of college.\u201d Eugene added that he didn\u2019t sell more than five himself,\u00a0and that there were more women than men selling the cookbook.<\/p>\n

Dan Hertzler, a classmate of Eugene\u2019s and former editor of Gospel Herald,<\/em> recalls that a year at EMC at the time cost $550, with a $100 discount for Bible majors. While Dan was later connected with the Mennonite Community Association and has long been associated with\u00a0Scottdale, Dan didn\u2019t help sell the cookbooks.<\/p>\n

\"crusaders-quartet-old\"<\/a>
Eugene Souder, second from left, in the early days of the Crusader\u2019s Quartet, with Roy Kreider, Paul Swarr and Aaron King. (Courtesy photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eugene confesses he didn\u2019t sell many himself because he was heavily involved in a budding men\u2019s quartet at EMC that went on to help launch the long running Mennonite Hour<\/a> radio program in 1952, which led to the whole international Mennonite Broadcasts, Inc. \u00a0organization\u2014(which eventually became Mennonite Media, which joined with Mennonite Publishing Network to form MennoMedia in 2011.)<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that summer of 1950, I didn\u2019t really have that much time to actually sell; I was surprised at the good return for my time,\u201d Eugene says. The cookbook initially cost $3.50 for the plain edition; a deluxe \u201cchapter tab\u201d edition was $4.50. \u201cThey were very fair in the commission they paid me.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Eugene went on to a long career as a pastor, graphic designer, and founder\/editor of at least three church magazines: Our Faith, Together, and Living<\/a> [the only magazine still in publication, under the editorship of article author Melodie Davis].<\/p>\n

Jay B. Landis, a former professor in the English language and literature department at EMC, also sold the cookbooks. But neither Jay nor Eugene remember it being through Eugene\u2019s circle of sellers. \u201cI sold a few\u2014maybe to my mother and a few others,\u201d Jay confesses. Jay was just out of high school and working a full-time job to make money for college, so his involvement was definitely limited.<\/p>\n

Jay and his wife Peggy now live in the home where Mary Emma and her eventual husband, Ira Eby, lived in Harrisonburg. When Peggy was an officer of the Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community<\/a> Auxiliary, she offered a dinner for their annual auction: a meal at their home with recipes cooked from Mary Emma Showalter\u2019s cookbook, including the famous seven sweets and seven sours.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of Mary Emma\u2019s nieces and nephews were the eventual recipients of the dinner, and during the course of the evening, we read several of the essays Mary Emma included at the beginning of each chapter of the book,\u201d Jay recalls.<\/p>\n

Eugene summarized his experience of earning enough money for a whole year of college as \u201cthe easiest money I ever made. Sometimes it is surprising what good things come your way.\u201d Like other students of his time, he graduated debt free.<\/p>\n

Republished from the Mennonite Community Cookbook<\/a> website with permission from the author, who says she would love to hear from any other cookbook sellers. Visit the cookbook’s website for contact information.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summer\u2019s here. Know any students looking for summer jobs? The summer when Mary Emma Showalter\u2019s now classic “Mennonite Community Cookbook” was released in 1950, various college students sold\u00a0the cookbook as ... read more about How a Mennonite college student earned a year\u2019s tuition selling the ‘Mennonite Community Cookbook’<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,1],"tags":[16844,16842,16838,13632,8450,13851,6107,9607],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-24681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-uncategorized","tag-crusaders-quartet","tag-dan-hertzler","tag-eugene-souder","tag-jay-b-landis","tag-melodie-davis","tag-mennomedia","tag-mennonite-hour","tag-virginia-mennonite-retirement-community"],"yoast_head":"\nHow a Mennonite college student earned a year\u2019s tuition selling the 'Mennonite Community Cookbook' - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/how-a-mennonite-college-student-earned-a-years-tuition-selling-the-mennonite-community-cookbook\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How a Mennonite college student earned a year\u2019s tuition selling the 'Mennonite Community Cookbook' - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Summer\u2019s here. 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