Community kitchens and the joy of working with kids.

This week I was able to participate in a community cooking class, my first time doing so. The class was geared towards children, with their parents accompanying them to help with anything beyond their skill level.

It turned out that most of the kids ran off and their parents ended up doing most of the cooking. There were a few kids that participated during the class, but it was difficult to engage children in the cooking process. Short attention spans make even the 10 minutes to cook ground beef feel like an eternity. Other kids disagreed about proper hand sanitizing, and deemed it acceptable to simply wipe their hands on their pants after handling raw meat. Fair enough!

There were moments that made it worthwhile. Watching kids getting involved with cooking, and developing cooking skills, even if at the most basic level, is an incredibly rewarding experience. You can't help but smile when watching a 6 year old peel a carrot for the first time, or watch in a trance his mother cutting up a pepper.

Basic cooking skills are so important to develop, yet are not commonly taught in the school system. I received no cooking or food education during school, and if it weren’t for my parents I would not have any sort of base to work with. Unfortunately not all children are as lucky to have parents that teach them to cook, either for lack of time or lack of cooking skills.

This is part of the reason why processed foods are so popular. Many people are growing up with cooking simply meaning reheating frozen products. That’s why cooking needs to be part of school’s core curriculum.

A recent article, by Thomas & Irwin (2013) in the Canadian journal of dietetic practice and research, looked at what aspects facilitate and act as barriers towards applying skills learned in a cooking class, among high risk youth in Toronto.

Four aspects that promoted the application of cooking skills were identified:

1) Aptitude, which is the possession of knowledge and skills to prepare food at home.

2) Food literacy, which is an understanding and knowledge of food preparation from start to finish, including food selection, purchasing, preparation, and preservation.

3) Local and fresh ingredients, which were identified as important to making healthy and delicious meals.

4) Connectedness, which is related to the youths’ connection to the food and the farmers that grew the food, and also their relationship with health, family, and culture.

Only one barrier was identified, and that was easy access to fast food restaurants, which deterred people away from making home cooked meals.

While the food industry has taken advantage of our desire to have quick meals that meet are busy lifestyle. These products are far from a necessity, and do not benefit our health. It is unlikely that we would starve if these products weren't  available, and more likely that it would force us to incorporate more time to prepare food. Unfortunately we have created a food system that promotes these types of convenience foods.

What we eat is dependant on many factors, including cost, availability etc., but if we want to give kids a chance to eat nutritiously, basic cooking skills are a must. Providing children cooking and nutrition classes from a young age will create a population that is able to choose between eating nutrient poor convenience foods, and cooking nutritious meals at home using fresh local ingredients, when available.

 A choice between health and illness.

JK