Healthy Kids in the Kitchen with Bon Appetit’s Food Education Team
- by bonappetit
A Healthy Kids in the Kitchen class at Samsung Mountainview this summer
As summer tilts toward fall, we’re looking back at the impact of the Healthy Kids in the Bon Appétit Kitchen series of food education classes we held over the past few months for kids all over the country. The Food Education team hosted over 20 classes and reached 400 children this summer.
While the Healthy Kids classes are held year-round, summer was a great time to launch a special series of classes to help kids learn and develop new skills during their break from school. With parents seeking out activities and programs for their kids, “it’s the perfect time of the year to partner with our accounts for community engagement,” says Nina Abramson, who leads the Healthy Kids program.
From June through August, Nina and the Food Education team offered Healthy Kids classes in regions where team members live. With Fellows Elise Dudley in Philadelphia, Elise Kulers in Chicago, Hillary Swimmer in San Francisco, and new Healthy Kids educator Emily Wireup in the Minneapolis area, the Healthy Kids team reached a diverse set of communities across the country.
These hands-on classes give Bon Appétit chefs and Fellows the chance to engage kids on the connection between food and health (how different vegetable’s vitamins help support different parts of the body, for example), freshness and flavor, and the creativity involved in cooking and preparing food.
During a class at Samsung San Jose, Executive Chef Lin YuMin guides kids on a garden scavenger in the Samsung Garden for a lesson on plant biology (above). Did you know that it’s the female flowers that produce fruit?
At the Target North campus in Minneapolis, Minnesota, kids attending Target Tech Day showed off their dough-stretching techniques (above) with our newest Healthy Kids educator Emily Wireup and the local team. Did you know that yeast is what makes pizza dough puffy?
In Palo Alto, California, Fellow Hillary Swimmer joined Chef Nathaniel Bohol at Palo Alto Networks to pilot two new Healthy Kids summer recipes: vegetable summer rolls and watermelon pizzas (above). Did you ever think about using watermelon as a sweet pizza base?
In Southern Wisconsin, Fellow Elise Kulers led a class at Beloit College (above) for two Boys & Girls Club chapters where Executive Sous Chef David Loper selected purple bell peppers for a taste-test activity and then used it in a vegetable stir fry recipe. Did you know that peppers can be purple?
“It’s so special to see our program flourish and serve communities all over the country,” says Nina. “I think parents really appreciate our extra efforts during the summer months and I hope we can expand the number of Healthy Kids educators for next year’s series!”