Youth Development

Cooking and food offer our youth numerous opportunities to enhance their personal development. These opportunities range anywhere from learning the complex kinesthetic skills involved in precise cutting and moving in a confined space to developing the everyday skills of problem solving and cooperation. Cooking can offer the youth teachable moments in mathematics such as measuring two cups of flour or converting tablespoons into teaspoons. History and science can also be relayed through cooking by teaching the cultural history of a certain dish or explaining the science behind why bread rises. More importantly, our youth is able to improve upon their self-efficacy and self-esteem, an integral aspect of their personal development, by using cooking and food.

An active approach to cooking is also beneficial in preparing our youth in the skills they will need as young adults and adults. Communication, responsibility, organization, good nutrition, and cultural awareness are all attributes of a well-adjusted person that be enhanced in our youth through the use of cooking and food.