When Masha Baeva was eight years old, her mother, a single mom who had recently emigrated to Canada from Latvia, signed her up as a “little sister” through Big Sisters of B.C. Lower Mainland.

That was 11 years ago, and her pairing with a Vancouver woman has deepened into a close friendship. Almost as soon as they had been introduced, when they weren’t going skating or swimming, they found themselves in the kitchen.

“We would cook together a lot,” Baeva says in a phone interview with the Georgia Straight. “We baked Christmas cookies together. As I started getting older, we would play around with recipes and check out new restaurants.”

Baeva credits her mother—a personal chef and an “absolutely phenomenal supermom”—for having the insight to connect her with a female Canadian role model and Big Sisters itself for helping her blossom.

“I was a shy kid,” says Baeva, who has three jobs and plans on going to Douglas College to study child and youth care. “I didn’t like talking to people. I didn’t like my smile; I was an insecure kid.…Martina [Lee, her Big Sister] dedicated a lot of time for me. We would spend a full day every weekend together. She never failed to show up. She always made time for me.

“It made me a confident woman,” she adds. “I feel like I can take on the world by myself. I’ve been working since I was 15. I’m buying a car in a month. I couldn’t have done that without support of my big sister and my mom cheering me on.”

Big Sisters aims to enhance the well-being and self-confidence of girls by matching them with supportive female volunteer mentors. The organization hosts group outings like kayaking and snow-tubing, and participants decide what kinds of activities they want to do one-on-one. As in any other relationship, exploring food can be an icebreaker.

“I remember making marshmallow-icing cupcakes,” says Lee, a lawyer who began volunteering as a Big Sister 12 years ago and who went on to join the organization’s board of directors. “I don’t know that I’d make them again, but it was a great way to form a bond. We did Christmas baking and would talk about our favourites.

“When she was younger, we could talk about things like how to measure [ingredients]. Masha is vegetarian, and I’ve become vegetarian over the years, and we’ve made meals together.”

Food is also one component in Big Sisters’ Go Girls! Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds program. Designed for youths aged 11 to 14, the eight-week group-mentoring course serves about 300 girls every year at select Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, and Tri-Cities schools. Each weekly session opens with physical activity and is followed by a delicious, healthy snack.

“The third main section focuses on feeling good,” says Big Sisters executive director Brenda Gershkovitch. “The key learning point here is that a healthy lifestyle is always about how we feel internally rather than how we look on the outside. The program tries to build the critical skills and confidence young girls need to improve their self-esteem.”

When it comes to balanced eating, sessions incorporate educational activities and group discussions on topics such as the importance of eating breakfast, whole foods, mindful eating, and nutrients like calcium, iron, and fibre.

“You really get to know each other and get into some really good conversations that carry over from week to week,” says Breanne Smart, who works for a travel-tech company and recently co-led one of the Go Girls! programs. “One of the things we talked about was how to read nutrition labels and learn what goes into the food you’re eating.

“We would always do snacks, a treat and a green,” she adds, “so maybe cookies and carrot sticks or cheese buns and snap peas. We talked about things like lentils and we tried new things like dragon fruit.

“It was really neat to see them contribute....This program would have been so cool to have as a kid when I was in Grade 6 or 7; I see how much I would have benefited from it. It would have been so helpful to have so many questions answered.”

Brooke McDonald has also helped lead Go Girls!; she enjoys being a positive influence on young women.

“One of the questions that came up was, ‘Is a calorie bad?’ ” says McDonald, a fourth-year psychology student who has volunteered since 2014. “We got to talk about that and encourage healthy lifestyles, dispelling misconceptions and helping them understand conflicting information they get exposed to in the media.

“Each week, we would bring snacks, and that was great for discussion points. One week we brought only veggies in and asked: ‘Is this a balanced snack?’ You don’t have to be snacking on veggies only.

“You need to have balance in your diet. It was great to be able to create a space to have this kind of conversation and give them things to think about as they go into their teenage years. And because it’s a group dynamic, it’s a lot of fun. Engaging with these girls has been really worthwhile; I’d definitely recommend it.

To learn more about or to support Big Sisters of B.C. Lower Mainland, visit www.bigsisters.bc.ca/.