Page 48 - Oct.Nov PDF For Flipbook

If we can teach kids as young as four years old
about cooking and nutrition, they have those life
skills forever.”

Chef Lynda first began Cooking With Kids in
1997 when she taught after school classes at the
local parks and recreation department. “My own
kids always knew about food and how to cook
for themselves. They knew how to choose the
right foods. As they grew up and went to college,
I started realizing that not everyone received that
same basic education. The kids who were properly
nourished tended to have clearer minds and make
better decisions including staying in school and
staying off drugs and alcohol.” And so, in 2010,
Cooking With Kids Foundation became a non-
profit organization dedicated to giving children
Having seen the statistics skyrocket, with 1 in 3 children suffering the tools with which to live longer, healthier lives.
from childhood obesity and a large percentage with diseases like Type
2 Diabetes, cardiovascular disease and even things like scurvy, Cooking Beyond just preparing a dish, Chef Lynda’s students also learn other
With Kids Foundation founder Chef Lynda Rexroat knew the nation essential kitchen and life skills. “We learn how to wash our hands and
had a real problem. “Eighteen years ago, I noticed that obesity and how to hold and use knives. We learn how to make shopping lists and
diabetes was a problem. Then a few more years passed and I noticed it how to identify ingredients in the super market. We learn how to read
was an epidemic. Now it is a full blown pandemic,” says Chef Lynda, a recipe and measure and mix and chop. We learn the differences in
an East Bay native. And there is no magical formula to determine if herbs and spices and what their uses might be. We even learn proper
someone is at risk. “I’ve seen highly educated and wealthy people with sfooomdetshtoinraggdee*tloicpioreuvseanntdspnouitlarigteiooursftoooedabto. rTnheeilklnidesssl,oavlel while cooking
these problems and I’ve seen impoverished people with these problems. it and I love it

FREE!Health education is important. What we feed ourselves is important.
too. I sleep very well at night,” she says. And when the dish is finished,
Chef Lynda has her students draw pictures of the recipes they prepared
as well as the ingredients to help them identify the dish or ingredient
NOW OPEN in future. “At the end of a class, parents frequently stand in stunned
in Napa!! silence watching their children eat items they swear the children won’t
eat. When it is fresh and delicious and they have a connection to how
it was grown and prepared, all-of-a-sudden their children love things
like salad and Brussels sprouts. It’s very rewarding,” she says.
The Cooking With Kids Foundation’s curriculum is very comprehen-
sive and includes a lot of information, but at a pace and in a form
that is easy for children to digest. The CWKF curriculum includes
1453 W. Imola Ave. things like sample shopping lists, coloring and drawing pages for var-
ious ingredients, correct knife-holding technique, recipes, photos of

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46 Oct/Nov