fresh for kids: healthy cooking with children
TRANSCRIPT
Fresh for Kids: Healthy Cooking with
Children
Presented by Mary Daniels
Youth Services Coordinator
Fresh for Kids: Planning• MPL already had a children’s cooking program in place,
which evolved from a program we called “Culture Club.” We called
the cooking version of this program, “Cooking Up Culture,” and
kids prepared a dish from a different country or nation each
month.
• Attendance numbers started to flag, and we realized we needed to
revitalize the program.
• At this time, the Winter Park Health Foundation
and Healthy Central Florida put out a call for
grant applications that would encourage healthy
eating and exercise in the Central Florida area.
• We applied for and received the grant.
Fresh for Kids: Inception• The grant stipulated that the project be twofold: we could
host healthy cooking classes for kids, but we also needed to
plant a small garden on the library premises where children
could, ideally, harvest the ingredients for their recipes.
• The cooking classes went ahead as planned since we
already had a time and place carved out from our Cooking
Up Culture series.
• The garden proved to be more of a challenge.
Fresh for Kids: Challenges Faced
• Part of our grant stipulated that we attempt to grow a
garden on the premises.
• Due to prior issues with theft on library property, we did not
want to invest a lot of money into container gardening (such
as Farm Daddy, etc.).
• We were also prohibited by the city to plot our garden in the
back of the library, as we had originally intended.
• As a compromise, we set up an inexpensive potted garden
on our patio, where we grew lettuce, basil, tomatoes, Swiss
chard, and more.
Fresh for Kids: Current Status
• Each month, we focus on a fresh fruit, vegetable, grain, or
herb and prepare recipes using that ingredient.
• It amazes us every month that kids really will try new fruits
and vegetables…as long as they’ve had a hand in preparing
them!
• Fresh for Kids continues to get between 25-60 kids each
month who attend our classes.
• Our most popular classes have been veggie dips, citrus
(donated by a local fruit stand) and, of course, homemade
ice cream!
Fresh for Kids: Projection for the Future
• Even though the grant only lasted one year, we are continuing
the Fresh for Kids classes.
• This class fulfills our desire to run a children’s cooking class, and
helps reinforce our healthy philosophy.
• We hope to continue bringing in “guest chefs” and making strong
community partnerships with this program.
• As our website continues to grow and improve, we would like to
post our recipes, and perhaps even videos from the classes.
• Getting our new demonstration-style kitchen would greatly
enhance this program!
Things to Consider When Planning a Kids’ Cooking Class
• Cost: we initiated this project with grant
money, but have continued it by factoring it into our
programming budget. Aside from ingredients, this is
essentially a cost-free program for us to hold.
• Ingredients: the only real cost this program incurs is for the
ingredients. Buying in bulk from places like Sam’s Club and
Costco has been helpful to us, as well as asking for donations
from community partners. On an average month, we spend
about $15-$40 on ingredients. Many of the ingredients are
items we already own from our other cooking classes (such
as spices, olive oil, honey, etc.).
Things to Consider When Planning a Kids’ Cooking Class
• Space: MPL has a large community room where we host our cooking
classes. This works well, but in some cases, like when we made ice
cream, going outside may have worked better.
• Community Partnerships: we try and partner with members of our
community as frequently as possible. Hollieanna’s donated lots of fresh,
Florida citrus for our program, and we have partnered with local bakeries
and businesses (farmer’s markets, etc.) to keep some
variety in the programming.
• Supplies: since we pride ourselves on our cooking
programs, we already owned many of the supplies
necessary. We did purchase a set of plastic measuring
spoons and cups expressly for the Fresh for Kids Class.
These came from the dollar store and have worked very well!
Questions???
References
• Healthy Central Florida: http://healthycentralflorida.org/
• Farm Daddy container gardens:
http://www.farmdaddy.com/index.html
• Hollieanna Groves: http://www.hollieanna.com/
• Maitland Public Library website: www.maitlandpl.org
• MPL Facebook: www.facebook.com/maitlandpubliclibrary
Ready to cook???