Free, healthy, seasonal, hands-on cooking for kids! Taught by real chefs partnered with educators.
Leader
Stacey Ornstein
Location
4020 Broadway Astoria, NY 11103
Impact areas
Free healthy cooking class for children ages 4 to 12!
Healthy, hands-on, activity-filled cooking lessons explore local, seasonal, vegetarian, nut-free, and often soy- and lactose-free international cuisine with children. We're less concentrated on drilling in "what's good for us" and more on finding out that cooking is fun! Together we develop basic kitchen skills: kitchen safety, knife skills, how to measure ingredients properly, explore kitchen tools, and more (parents often learn a thing or two, too!). Through this process, the hope is that we realize that cooking nourishing food that is good for us doesn't have to be labeled "healthy," but is still tasty.
In this series we'll partner with a local restaurant for awesome chef-led classes!
Once funded we'll reach out to the restaurant, which has already expressed interest in hosting a class. We currently have partnerships with local restuarants eager to donate their chef, space and food. Once the class receives funding we will post it to our Eventbrite site (www.allergictosalad.eventbrite.com) and get cooking!
As always, we continue to reach out to local community groups, government folk, food suppliers, newspapers and more to spread the cooking love and expand funding!
Once the class receives funding we will post it to our Eventbrite site (www.allergictosalad.eventbrite.com) and get cooking.
Since 2007 I have taught healthy cooking to NYC public school students at after-school programs, summer camps and with the Greening Libraries Initiative at Queens Library. My desire is to bring the message closer to home through hands-on cooking classes for kids I have developed through my years of experience.
Classes are offered free of charge to allow all income levels to participate. The language of food is universal and I often work with non-English speakers with little problem. Cooking often engages children that don't have a proper outlet in a traditional classroom and allows them the freedom to express delicious creativity and share it with their loved ones.
The classes address healthy eating, obesity, local food systems, food justice, and more.