Food has been a foundational part of Caroline Chambers’ life journey. The author, influencer, podcaster, and mom of three started in catering before moving into developing recipes for brands and magazines, which led to her first book deal, for “Just Married: A Cookbook for Newlyweds.”
But after the birth of her first child, Caro (as she prefers to be called) recognized the vast difference between cooking for two and cooking for two while parenting an infant. That’s when she was inspired to write a second cookbook, “What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking” (available now for pre-order). Her first publisher, however, rejected the idea on the premise that her social media presence wasn’t strong enough to support the title.
When the pandemic hit, Chambers’ freelance recipe development work dried up. Seeing it as an opportunity rather than a setback, she built her social channels while creating easy, approachable recipes. “Everyone’s in quarantine, nobody is going to the grocery store,” Chambers says. “It became my thing to write recipes that included substitutions for every single ingredient.” She then began creating “What to cook when you don’t feel like cooking” content through a subscription newsletter. “Overnight, I got like 500 paid subscribers,” she says. “I was like, whoa, this could work.”
Since then, Chambers’ followers have skyrocketed; she has more than 210,000 on Instagram and 152,000 on Substack. She also has 20,000 paid newsletter subscribers, and the book idea that started it all is due to publish this summer.
SEE: Caro’s Mother’s Day Picks
Growth for the greater good
As Chambers’ online influence has grown, so have her interests. Her social accounts, once only devoted to food, grew into other areas, such as motherhood tips and lifestyle-focused topics. “I love sharing other parts of my life,” she says. One such part she is particularly passionate about is her support for military families. (Her husband, George, is a former Navy SEAL.)
Over the years, Caro and George have held small fundraising events to help military families. But Caro saw a real chance to help when, in February 2020, the United States announced it was pulling its troops out of Afghanistan over the next 14 months (the evacuation wasn’t actually completed until August 2021). That decision resulted in more soldiers, including George, being sent overseas to provide support and security during the withdrawal. “It really disrupted lives,” Chambers says.
Chambers shared her thoughts about the situation on social media, and soon her inbox was flooded with messages from concerned military spouses. She was especially moved by the stories from pregnant women who were days away from delivering and whose husbands would miss the birth of their child.
My community is so generous — it’s become something so much bigger.
Caro Chambers
Chambers wanted to help, so she reached out to her online community asking for donations. Her followers responded in kind: In 24 hours, she raised $80,000.
That’s when she and Heather Looney — a fellow military wife and one of Chambers’ social media followers — got together to locate pregnant military spouses in need. “My husband has three family members who served with Caro’s husband,” says Looney, who also took a cooking class Chambers taught. Chambers asked Looney if she knew anyone who was activated to rapidly deploy for the Afghanistan withdrawal.
“Caro is truly remarkable,” Looney says. “She uses her platform to bring awareness to the sacrifices our soldiers and their families make every day.”
Serving those who serve
While the withdrawal from Afghanistan was the catalyst for the two women coming together to raise and distribute funds, Looney stresses that military families are often in need of support and resources year-round. “Many in the military community struggle financially,” she says.
Looney devotes much of her time to supporting the military community through her work with nonprofits and other organizations, including Santa’s Castle, which distributes toys at Christmas to children at Fort Moore in Georgia; Battle Buddy Resources, which provides food assistance to Fort Moore families in need; and Operation Deploy Your Dress, which helps offset the costs of formal military functions for military families.
Chambers also continues to be active in raising money for military families, including holding an annual Christmas fundraiser. “We raise close to $100,000 every year,” she says. And as her community has grown, so too have her initiatives, which include providing financial support to families who have lost servicemembers in on-duty accidents and sending ice cream and toys to families. “My community is so generous — it’s become something so much bigger,” she says. “It also shines a light on the sacrifices [military families] make.”
