By: Jules Koehl
Earlier this week, The Food Trust completed a six-week Cooking & Nutrition Series at the Health Federation of Philadelphia – Early Head Start. Each Wednesday, staff members Jules Koehl and Kelly Yerger met with eight families to discuss different topics around building healthy habits.
Jules kicked things off by leading the families through the Cooking Matters for Families curriculum, which introduced discussions like how we can cook and eat together as a family, the importance of trying new foods, staying physically active, healthy beverages, and more. Kelly then led a cooking demonstration and gave crucial cooking information and tips, along with hands-on assistance from the children. Everyone tried the recipe together, sharing thoughts and opinions, and each family was sent home with a bag of groceries with ingredients to recreate the recipe at home.
The Health Federation of Philadelphia – Early Head Start, located in the Fishtown area of Philadelphia, primarily serves pregnant women, and families and caregivers with children 3 years or younger. They offer a plethora of resources and support for the community. This was the first series with the Health Federation of Philadelphia – Early Head Start and we hope to have more collaboration in the future. The Cooking Matters for Families series is incredibly important for building on parents’ and caregivers’ skills and confidence in the kitchen, as well as emphasizing the importance of cooking and eating as a family.
The parents and caregivers in this series were particularly engaged and open, ready to share their experiences and learn from the class, as well as one another. One parent shared that because of the series, she now served vegetables with every dinner, which she had not been doing previously; another parent shared that she added quinoa to her weekly grocery list; another shared that the series was “life-changing” and that he genuinely believes the information presented “saved [his] life”.
Not only did the series have a serious impact on the participating families, but more simply, it was a time for everyone to come together and share a meal with people from their community. The importance of this simple act has a momentous effect on building a deeper connection to ourselves, our family, and our community.