Creating Healthy Futures with Healthy Food
Cooking with Chefs series brings nutrition and cooking education to local schools
Victor De La Fuente and Justin Morrison video Dr. Sabrina Falquier Mongrain at Coronado Kitchen & Bath for our Healthy Cooking Program
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Creating a foundation for lifelong healthy habits.
The Chefs de Cuisine Education Foundation believes there should be an expectation that food meets recognized basic nutritional requirements and is prepared with wholesome, quality ingredients without harmful additives.
Dr. Sabrina Falquier discusses MyPlate, a method for guiding students in nutrition, food groups, and portions.
Overview
A key principle of the Foundation’s “Cooking With Chefs” program is to help middle school through high school students become knowledgeable consumers who understand kitchen health and safety standards, and can make the best possible choices when buying, preparing, and consuming food items at home and in commercial food service establishments.
What We Teach
“Cooking With Chefs” offers in-person, classroom instruction, healthy recipes, and guidelines in kitchen safety, culinary techniques, and nutrition.
The goal is to provide students with knowledge of healthy eating and food preparation along with hands-on, in-kitchen experiences. The desired outcome is to help students and their families make healthier food choices when shopping, cooking, and eating.
Our Neighborhoods
Through our partnership with Sweetwater Union School District, we are able to offer in-person instruction throughout South San Diego County.
Program Timeline
How We Started
“Cooking With Chefs” began as a 2018 collaboration between the Foundation and the South San Diego County Boys & Girls Clubs to provide in-person, no-cost healthy cooking classes.
The programs success led to other community programs requesting the series. Then in 2020, COVID-related restrictions closed schools, afterschool programs, and much of the nation. The Foundation board of directors believed student eating habits would only worsen during a pandemic and sought a solution.
OUR PARTNERSHIPS
Through discussion with Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) a partnership was acheived. SUHSD is the second largest school district in San Diego County, serving Chula Vista, Imperial Beach, and National City. Those cities have among the highest rates of childhood obesity, childhood diabetes and malnutrition in the county, according to the Childhood Obesity Initiative Report sponsored biennially by the County of San Diego. The Foundation pivoted to create video-based cooking demonstrations and lesson plans for at-home viewing. We purchased and distributed recipe kits so that students could participate. Parents drove through the parking lots throughout the pandemic with teachers distributing the kits so students could watch the videos, prepare the recipes and share the experience with other family members.
The program was funded entirely by the Foundation through donations, grants, and in-kind gifts at no cost to the school district or the parents.
A major plus during that difficult period was a working relationship that developed between SUHSD and the Foundation. The school district provided access to families living in target communities and engaged teachers, staff, and administrators. It built a spirit of cooperation that remains.
Students involved in teacher-supervised, after-school cooking clubs were encouraged to register for “Cooking With Chefs” through on-campus, after school cooking clubs. Any student could join an existing cooking club. One school even started a cooking club so it could participate.
OUR RECIPES
Recipes were selected based on health benefits, ease of preparation, limited number of ingredients, and food concepts familiar to most students. Those recipes were paired with lessons on handwashing, health and sanitation, cross contamination, reading ingredient labels, and the origins of various food items presented in the recipes.
Today & Beyond
A major concern when considering expansion was the cost of recipe ingredients, video recording and editing, and the availability of facilities and volunteers to package and deliver recipe kits. Lack of ongoing access to adequate resources inhibited the growth potential of the program.
A large portion of those concerns were removed when in-person instruction resumed after COVID-related restrictions were lifted. Another prominent issue was how to return the in-person instruction element to the program, which had been a key satisfaction factor in pre-COVID student surveys.
The relationship fostered during the pandemic years allowed for an expansion of the partnership between SUHSD and the Foundation. An agreement passed by the SUHSD school board to create a framework for in-person instruction. It also established a structure permitting the district to partner in some of the food costs when students returned to the classroom.
Cooking club instructors receive a list of recipe ingredients from the Foundation chefs and utilize federal funding for afterschool programs to purchase necessary grocery items. This is permitted under government guidelines for after-school programs because ingredients are prepared by students on campus in a teacher-supervised classroom activity.
The Education Foundation continues to buy bulk and specialty food items and reimburses chefs for demonstrations. The partnership includes farm, and food industry-related field trips, and an end of the year Foundation-funded event for all participating students to gather and celebrate their progress.
With the return to total, in-person instruction, a professional chef is assigned to provide instruction at least twice monthly at each participating school. Roving chefs provide sessions in specialty areas like sushi, baking, vegetable carving, and specialties at each school once a semester.
This unique collaboration between SUHSD and the Foundation could serve as a template for similar arrangements with other school districts and youth organizations that operate afterschool programs.
We believe the “Cooking With Chefs” concept is an essential element in spreading the message of affordable, nutritious eating that tastes good. The goal is for students to share what they learn and create lifestyles that become part of generational understanding. This is key because the harmful mental and physical health conditions created by poor nutrition are not limited to underserved neighborhoods. They are a threat to all children and their families wherever they live.
Chef Don Williamson instructs students in our Healthy Cooking Program
Children learn proper hand washing and sanitation practices
Student get hands on experience preparing a variety of foods.
Volunteers packed recipe kits during our online programs during COVID restrictions.
Many students express limited exposure at home to the tools and skills needed to learn healthy cooking.
Our chefs demonstrate simple skills that students can’t take home to share with their families.
Confidence is built when students engage in the entire process, from whole food ingredients, to preparation, then cooking, and ultimately enjoying a meal.
Meet Evan Estrada, a 15-year-old cooking phenom who competed on the nationally-televised Master Chef Junior program and will be one of the chefs featured in our healthy cooking classes videos.
Chef Jeff Roberto leads a classroom lesson on healthy food preparation.