About Cooking with Kids
Cooking with Kids motivates and empowers elementary school students to make healthy food choices. Through hands-on nutrition education activities, kindergarten through 6th grade students explore, prepare, and enjoy fresh, affordable foods from around the world.
We believe that experience with fresh, healthy foods is an important part of learning how to take care of yourself. Many of us were fortunate to grow up with parents and grandparents, neighbors and friends who cooked and gardened, sharing with us the value and pleasure of food. Growing, cooking, and eating fresh foods became a cherished part of our lives. Today, most children do not have this experience. Children embrace these experiences instinctively, with enthusiasm and willingness in every class we teach.
Bringing healthy foods into the classroom can increase students' awareness, appreciation, and knowledge of healthy eating. Our experience supports research that finds that children need to be offered a new food a number of times before they accept it, and as such, we work to expose students to a variety of positive food choices while honoring the individual choice and preference of each child. Children should be encouraged, but never forced to try a new food.
We also believe in being good stewards of our environment and supporting our community. Whenever possible, we purchase locally grown produce in order to support our local economy and sustainable growing practices.
History
Cooking with Kids grew out of the efforts of a local student nutrition advisory council to improve school food. Lynn Walters initiated Cooking with Kids in 1995, based on food acceptance research conducted by Antonia Demas, Ph.D., and inspired by the work of Cookshop and The Hartford Food System. The program began as a volunteer effort in two public elementary schools in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Today, over 4,400 pre-kindergarten through sixth grade students in twelve schools participate in the program. We are encouraged by the consistent support from public and private sources, Santa Fe Public Schools, and the generosity of the philanthropic community.
Site Credits
Funding for this website has been provided through grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Buckaroo Ball Committee, Inc. and USDA CSREES National Research Initiative through Colorado State University: project 2007-05062.
Photos by Lynn Walters and Photographer Kate Russell. Video clips by New Mexico State University and City of Santa Fe.
Thank you to the students in the Santa Fe Public Schools who created the beautiful artwork on this site.
We believe that experience with fresh, healthy foods is an important part of learning how to take care of yourself. Many of us were fortunate to grow up with parents and grandparents, neighbors and friends who cooked and gardened, sharing with us the value and pleasure of food. Growing, cooking, and eating fresh foods became a cherished part of our lives. Today, most children do not have this experience. Children embrace these experiences instinctively, with enthusiasm and willingness in every class we teach.
Bringing healthy foods into the classroom can increase students' awareness, appreciation, and knowledge of healthy eating. Our experience supports research that finds that children need to be offered a new food a number of times before they accept it, and as such, we work to expose students to a variety of positive food choices while honoring the individual choice and preference of each child. Children should be encouraged, but never forced to try a new food.
We also believe in being good stewards of our environment and supporting our community. Whenever possible, we purchase locally grown produce in order to support our local economy and sustainable growing practices.
History
Cooking with Kids grew out of the efforts of a local student nutrition advisory council to improve school food. Lynn Walters initiated Cooking with Kids in 1995, based on food acceptance research conducted by Antonia Demas, Ph.D., and inspired by the work of Cookshop and The Hartford Food System. The program began as a volunteer effort in two public elementary schools in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Today, over 4,400 pre-kindergarten through sixth grade students in twelve schools participate in the program. We are encouraged by the consistent support from public and private sources, Santa Fe Public Schools, and the generosity of the philanthropic community.
Site Credits
Funding for this website has been provided through grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Buckaroo Ball Committee, Inc. and USDA CSREES National Research Initiative through Colorado State University: project 2007-05062.
Photos by Lynn Walters and Photographer Kate Russell. Video clips by New Mexico State University and City of Santa Fe.
Thank you to the students in the Santa Fe Public Schools who created the beautiful artwork on this site.