My practicum with Growing Chefs is now complete and i’d like to share some take aways that I got from the experience.
I think it is important to start educating your children about cooking and nutrition as early as possible. Otherwise children will form eating habits that can be really hard to break down the road. I really appreciate that Growing Chefs teaches children about gardening, cooking, and nutrition. These are all important life skills that are being lost in the new generations. Letting children have fun when they are cooking are gardening will inspire children to want to continue using those skills because they are enjoying it! Growing Chefs implements their programs in a really fun way in order to leave a positive impression on the children. Their program is really hands on, gets the children involved, and includes a lot of sharing childrens own experiences (which children love to do). If a child is helping out in the garden or the kitchen at home, and if the child is making healthy eating choices they are MUCH more likely to continue those healthy habits in to adulthood , and what I love most about Growing Chefs is that they are addressing that.
Some fun things that children got to do in their classrooms where: grow vegetables in planters; bring vegetables from home and share about them; taste different vegetables; help out with making stir fry, salad, soup; read stories about vegetables and gardening.
I also think it is worth mentioning that because Growing Chefs is a charity organization and it is heart warming that the whole organization is run by volunteers who have good paying jobs at well known restaurants but give up their time to help out.