By Kyle Smith,

Although this is only Daisy Carusillo’s second year implementing the Food Bank’s CookShop Classroom curriculum at PS 24 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, she handles the job like an old pro.

I recently had the pleasure of seeing Daisy in action as she instructed a roomful of new CookShop teachers at a training session one evening this fall.  After a full day in their own classrooms, the teachers had arrived looking a little weary. But as Daisy led a mock Chef Lesson (a cooking activity in which students help prepare nutritious, kid-friendly recipes) it was clear that these lessons are her favorite part of the curriculum – and it was impossible for the tired teachers to resist Daisy’s infectious energy and humorous anecdotes! Plus, it didn’t hurt that the tangy batch of Peachy Orange Salsa they were preparing smelled so great.  

“This is where nutrition education takes on a whole new life,” Daisy said. “The actual handling of the produce, the chopping, the dicing, mixing, the smells…does so much for the building of community.” 

CookShop Chef Lessons give elementary-school children an opportunity to try healthy food, such as fruits and vegetables, in a learning environment, Daisy said, while the Explorer and Discovery Lessons reinforce other academic areas such as reading, math and science skills.

"One of my favorite [Chef Lesson] memories is when a student was so proud of her dish – it looked so colorful, and it was so flavorful – she wanted to take some to the principal so she could taste it,” Daisy said.

But like all learning experiences, some can be a little jarring at first. When Daisy’s students were told carrots comprised the root of a plant, “they were so shocked, they weren’t sure if they wanted to continue eating [the Carrot Raisin Salad].”

Daisy said the students were more willing to taste the Three-Bean Salad and Apple Dipper recipes, but, she said, all CookShop lessons help serve a child’s personal development.

“Children who develop adequate cooking skills and nutritional knowledge are more likely to make healthier food choices later in life,” Daisy said.

And it’s that kind of insight – rather than the number of years’ experience -- that makes Daisy Carusillo an expert CookShop teacher.
 

By Matthew Gustafson, 

One of my greatest pleasures in visiting the schools that run our CookShop Classroom program is observing how creative teachers can be when connecting our program's nutrition education messages to the other subjects they’re teaching.

Of course, CookShop’s curriculum is built to facilitate these kinds of connections.

From top: Photo by Miriam Araya; Photo by Ritamarie Pepe

I’ve seen teachers relate CookShop to math — measuring ingredients is a handy lesson in fractions, addition and multiplication. Other teachers highlight geography through discussions of farming and geographical landscapes. And I’ve seen CookShop help develop reading and writing skills, as teachers ask their students to use descriptive words to articulate and write about the way foods look, feel, smell, sound and taste.

I’m always impressed by teachers’ imagination in bringing their lessons to life, so I was especially excited to see CookShop take on a whole new educational aspect at P.S. 112 in Brooklyn!

Fourth grade photography students, inspired by the foods a younger class had used in a CookShop lesson, grabbed their cameras and set up a fresh veggie photo shoot. I’ve seen a lot of CookShop creativity, but I never expected this transformation of food into art!

“We used our imagination to create a new world with vegetables,” wrote student Susan He in a letter explaining her photos.

Whoever said you shouldn’t play with your food?!
 

By Triada Stampas

Last week, the Food Bank kicked off the 18th year of our signature nutrition education program with a day-long conference, training teachers and educators to bring our CookShop program to students and parents in public schools throughout New York City.

USDA Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Kevin Concannon

A testament to the Food Bank’s continued commitment to nutrition education, CookShop will now be bringing the knowledge and tools to adopt a healthy diet on a limited budget to more than 135,000 low-income children, teens and adults through interactive workshops and peer-led social marketing.

This year, the Food Bank was proud to introduce important updates to CookShop. The CookShop Classroom for Elementary School curriculum, for example, now links nutrition education lessons directly to core subjects like math, language arts and science, and, importantly, to the school meals children have access to every day. CookShop for Families not only engages parents and guardians in workshops that complement the Classroom curriculum, it now also incorporates important skills like budgeting and meal planning.

United Federation of Teachers (UFT) President Mike Mulgrew

This year’s keynote speakers – USDA Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Kevin Concannon and United Federation of Teachers (UFT) President Mike Mulgrew – joined Food Bank President and CEO Margarette Purvis at the conference, showing their support and appreciation for the teachers, parent coordinators and school staff who make CookShop a reality.

“We live in challenging times, and teachers can play such a vital role, not only in ensuring that children won’t go hungry, but that they also eat healthy foods,” said Under Secretary Concannon.

Michael Mulgrew told us that he still makes the recipe he learned to prepare during his visit to a CookShop for Families workshop in the Bronx. The UFT President further praised the hands-on CookShop curriculum for making learning accessible to all students, including those in special education.

Teachers participated in hands-on workshops.

Perhaps best of all, the conference gives us a great opportunity to hear from the CookShop teachers and educators directly about what they most value in the program.

”This is an excellent idea - to link [the lessons] to math, science and language arts,” said six-year CookShop veteran Millie Peguero, referring to recent updates to the curricula she will be implementing in her Manhattan kindergarten class. “We’ve already noticed that the apple lesson, for example, coincided with a science lesson on fruits of the season, so we use that as the science lesson that day.”

By Zac Hall, 

For this school year, the Food Bank’s CookShop Classroom for Elementary School curriculum is getting a fresh new makeover!

We always strive to improve our CookShop nutrition education program so that the more than 30,000 participating New York City children, teens and adults get the best possible education about how to cook and eat healthfully.

Our new CookShop Classroom for Elementary School curriculum focuses on integrating nutrition and food exploration into everyday, routine activities for children – if kids talk and think about new foods and food choices on a daily basis, it gets easier to keep thinking about and making healthy choices.

First things first: Where does food come from? Our new curriculum starts at the farm, so that children know exactly where their food comes from before it lands in a supermarket aisle or their refrigerator. Students also discuss common food sources in New York City (like farmers markets, grocery stores and bodegas) so they can make healthful food choices anywhere they find food.

This year’s curriculum will also focus on school meals, using the foods that kids are already familiar with in the school setting as an extra learning tool. Students will identify the healthy foods on their breakfast and lunch plates, discuss their farm roots and learn about their nutritional benefits, so that their everyday food experiences become learning experiences.

Speaking of plates: Our new curriculum stars the USDA’s new nutrition icon, MyPlate. MyPlate encourages people to think about building a healthy plate at meal times. Each educational unit of CookShop features one MyPlate food group: fruit, vegetables, whole grains, legumes (and other plant proteins) and low-fat dairy products. The best part: after learning about these foods’ benefits, the kids prepare and taste delicious and nutritious recipes with them. Yum!

We are excited to start reaching a new wave of New Yorkers with our message of healthy cooking and eating! Check back throughout the year for first-hand stories from our students, teachers and Food Bank staff.

Zac Hall is the Food Bank's CookShop for Families Manager

by Melissa Garba Baker,

As a site monitor for CookShop, the Food Bank’s core nutrition education program, and as a graduate student studying nutrition, I study how food impacts our health and where it comes from. Happily, that’s exactly what the second graders at P.S. 64 in the Bronx were discussing when I visited their classroom recently.

The CookShop curriculum highlights plant-based foods, including fruit, vegetables, legumes and whole grains, as nutritious food choices. Students also learn about how all food originates from plants, even animal products like milk, cheese and meat. On the day that I visited, the class was learning to tell the “food story” for different foods they liked to eat. To the delight of his classmates, one student suggested they tell the story of meatballs — clearly a class favorite.

“So, where do meatballs come from?” the teacher asked.

Students offered many possibilities, including “the store,” “a restaurant,” “my grandma’s house” and “meat.” Delving deeper, they learned that meat comes from cows, and that — like humans — cows get important vitamins and nutrients by eating greens. Then, the teacher led a brief discussion about processing — all of the steps that transform the meat into a meatball. Together, the class devised this “food story” for meatballs:

The students were amazed at the number of steps it takes to get to the final meatball. Full of questions, by the end of their first CookShop lesson they couldn’t wait for the next one — when they would participate in some food processing of their own by taking whole fruits and vegetables and working together to prepare a simple, delicious, healthy recipe.

As a public health professional, I was delighted to see the students’ interest in food and their hunger to learn more. Knowledge about food and nutrition is vital to making healthy choices, and that’s what CookShop is all about — educating students so they can begin making informed choices from an early age.

By Patrycja Dziedzic,

“I wish my house was full of apples,” exclaimed Mohammad, a six year old participant at Herbert Von King’s after-school program in Brooklyn. My first thought was, “Yes! He loves apples!”

Children enjoying apples at a Food Bank event.

This summer, as part of my CookShop for Teens (EATWISE) internship with the Food Bank, I mentored young kids participating in CookShop Classroom for After-School’s hands-on nutrition workshops, which allow kids to not only learn about new foods, but try them, too!

Mohammad was eager to tell me that apples are part of the fruit group, and he showed me where they belong on the USDA’s MyPlate icon. Mohammed continued to bring up his favorite fruit every chance he got, throughout the whole lesson.

Thankfully, our recipe that day was the MyPlate Pizza — a healthy take on everyday pizza, which includes apples! When we started preparing the food, Mohammed’s eyes lit up and my heart melted.

Mohammed learned why apples are good for him, and later told me that he ate some at home that evening. The kids were eager to indulge in all of the new knowledge they were introduced to through CookShop, so I know they will have a better view of what a healthy lifestyle is from a young age.

Being part of the kids’ CookShop experience made me feel great — I had the chance to engage and teach them about nutrition, something I myself learned so much about through my EATWISE internship. It was definitely a great experience that I'd love to repeat!

Patrycja is a senior at New Dorp High School, participating in our EATWISE internship for teens. EATWISE gives young people the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions about what they eat and drink, and trains them to become peer nutrition educators.&

By Cassandra Campbell,

When I was a young kid, teenagers were the coolest people to walk the earth. I absorbed teens’ words, actions and perspectives like a sponge, happily filing it all away in my brain under the label, “Awesomeness!”

This summer, our CookShop nutrition education program took advantage of the connection between kids and teens by enlisting our CookShop for Teens (EATWISE) participants to serve as mentors and models of healthy eating to the younger generation.  Starting in July, the teen participants paired up with CookShop Classroom for After-School, which provides nutrition and health education to six- to twelve-year-old children at after-school sites throughout the city.

For both our after-school and teen components, it was a summer of firsts. Since it’s the first time the after-school component ran during the summer, we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to get our teens involved. So, for the first time, our EATWISE participants helped facilitate the after-school workshops, guiding the young students through the lessons and prepping ingredients so the kids could whip up our tasty CookShop recipes.

The CookShop teens aren’t strangers to spreading the word of healthful eating – last year they taught others in their communities about topics like the food groups, portion size and food processing at local markets, their schools and other community sites. We were thrilled to watch them take on this new challenge, spreading their message to the next generation.

Cross-generational learning that reinforces healthful eating habits for both children and teens: in my eyes, this may be a match made in CookShop heaven.

Cassandra Campbell is Youth Development Associate at the Food Bank For New York City.

By Katherine Mancera,

This July, the Food Bank’s Change One Thing social marketing campaign for healthy eating hit billboards, bus panels, subway stops and radio waves across the city.

Keep an eye out for our colorful Change One Thing billboards, bus panels and subway ads across the city this summer — and listen up for our radio ads!

Change One Thing, a component of our CookShop for Teens nutrition education program, aims to encourage teens in New York City’s low-income neighborhoods to — you guessed it — change one thing about their everyday food choices. Swapping out the lunchtime soda for water or eating an apple instead of a bag of chips are small steps that can lead to lasting changes in habit — and lasting health benefits.

Placed in communities that are flooded with advertisements promoting unhealthy foods, Change One Thing ads spread the message — to more than 100,000 teens! — that eating healthfully doesn’t have to mean overhauling your diet or breaking the bank. This message is especially important in low-income neighborhoods where cheap, unhealthy food options abound — making the healthy choice not the most obvious.

This summer, our EATWISE teens, who are trained as peer nutrition educators to spread the campaign’s message of healthy eating in their communities, are taking the Change One Thing challenge to the streets. They will talk to peers about the campaign’s impact on their awareness of healthy eating, and how they have taken their own steps toward healthy change.

“We all need to change one thing about our healthy nutrition,” said EATWISE participant Myrlene Etienne, a student at Brooklyn International High School. “The most important thing I have done in EATWISE has been working with other teens that I never met before to change one thing.”

How will you Change One Thing this summer? Let us know in the comments!

By Melissa Garba Baker,

During the summer months, we on the CookShop team spend time looking back on the last school year’s trials and successes. This summer, we are especially proud of an initiative we piloted in partnership with Target last year: Keeping Schools Healthy.

Keeping Schools Healthy complemented the CookShop nutrition education program by providing extra take-home food and nutrition education resources for CookShop participants. Thanks to Target’s generous grant, the Food Bank was able to provide more than 250 CookShop students and their families at a Queens elementary school with free pantry bags filled with healthy food and newsletters highlighting nutrition tips and tasty recipes for families to prepare together.

The CookShop curriculum teaches nutrition and cooking skills and fosters enthusiasm for whole foods — including fruit, vegetables, legumes, whole grains and low-fat and fat-free dairy products. So the Keeping Schools Healthy pantry bags not only reinforced CookShop’s in-class lessons, they provided all the ingredients for the whole family to cook and learn together!

This spring we received glowing letters from some of the parents participating in the Keeping Schools Healthy initiative at P.S. 116 Q. Parent Sabina Osolmo wrote, "The CookShop program has changed my child and also us in the way we eat. We are eating more simple and nutritious meals and healthier snacks since the program has begun."

And, speaking to the value of combining nutrition education with the healthy take-home food Target helped to provide, parent Brenda McKensie wrote, "The CookShop program provides us, the parents, the opportunity to learn new ways of preparing healthy meals for our family and it provides for us free food that we are not always able to buy."

We extend a hearty “Thank you!” to Target for their help working towards a hunger-free New York.

Melissa Garba Baker is a CookShop Site Monitor at the Food Bank For New York City.

By Justin Crum, 

Summer is always a bittersweet time of year for us on the CookShop team.

After school lets out in June, our CookShop Classroom for Elementary School nutrition workshops go into hibernation until school starts up again in the fall.  During the summer months we miss seeing and hearing about the learning adventures of our youngest students as they discover new healthy foods.

As blogger Matt Gustafson recently wrote, the final CookShop “celebration” lesson has been held, giving students a chance to review and celebrate all they learned in CookShop this year. From the parts of a plant to nutrients, kitchen skills and sensory vocabulary, our students have a lot to reflect on!

Though the school year has ended, it doesn’t mean our students stop learning and sharing. They have all been sent home with CookShop Certificates and nutrition newsletters so they can share their newfound knowledge with friends and families. And this summer, our students will likely be spending time in supermarkets, farmers markets and kitchens with their families, so they’ll have plenty of places to practice what they’ve learned. Maybe they’ll even get to help out in the kitchen!

Though CookShop Classroom for Elementary School is on summer break, stay tuned for news about our other CookShop components — including CookShop Classroom for After-School and CookShop for Teens (EATWISE) — that are running strong all summer!