Kids Cook!

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Our Mission

The key message we deliver is â€œHealthy eating, which includes variety and moderation, paired with exercise, is what it takes to create healthy individuals and a healthy society.â€ While media continues to inundate families with messages to eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains, Kids C ook! provides the missing link: a safe and positive experiences with healthy foods through hands on learning with fresh, culturally diverse foods. Kids Cook! students become advocates for change at home, bringing home Kids Cook! recipes, new culinary skills, a willingness to eat a variety of fresh foods and a desire to help cook these foods.

Who We Are

Kids Cook! is an nutrition, physical activity and food education program serving approximately 6000 elementary and middle school students in New Mexico. Each student receives 12 hours of hands on nutrition, cooking and physical activity during the year. Students participate in 8 units a year beginning with the Welcome Unit, 4-two-hour cooking units and 3- 0ne hour tasting units. Besides cooking the meal, students learn a bit of history of the area in which the food originated and nutrition information for the foods they are preparing; students take home recipes for repeating the meal preparation at home. Kids Cook! promotes family participation by inviting parents and or community members to volunteer during cooking units. Last year Kids Cook! had 2,250 family volunteers totaling 6, 025 volunteer hours in 13 schools. Kids cook! promotes the importance of eating real food with variety and moderation and family meals.