Brought to you by: Pathways Kingston

“I made friends, and we talked about the meals every time during or after we cooked. And then I met a lot of new people in the community. I’m trading recipes with people I haven’t met yet in the community, so it’s cool!”

A Pathways student 

Program Activity Snapshot:

To help youth incorporate healthier lifestyle habits into their daily lives:

• We created a virtual cooking program for youth to learn how to cook healthy meals together—right from the comfort of their own kitchens  
• Youth worked with staff to develop recipes and create grocery lists 
• Youth volunteers helped pack participant take-home packages  
• Program staff delivered all the ingredients and kitchen tools needed to create the meals to the home of each participant  
• Youth had the opportunity to engage their families to participate in the cooking lessons with them and contribute to future recipe ideas

Objectives:

Create a dynamic and empowering food education program that will help youth: 

1. Build meaningful cooking skills 
2. Connect with their peers and community 
3. Consider their food choices for healthier outcomes 

What was the result?

• Youth received Food Safety Handling training and certification  
• Youth contributed to the creation of a cookbook that was shared with the community  
• Youth earned volunteer hours by helping to pack and prep participant take-home packages  
• Supported food security for Pathways families  
• Program staff had the opportunity to connect with families when they were delivering the take-home packages and provide advocacy supports during the pandemic  

Want to try this out?

What you’ll need:

1. Staffing Support: One Program Facilitator working 6 hours per week for 24 weeks 
2. Duration: 5 series of 2 workshops per week for 4 weeks 
3. Teaching Aids:  
   • Zoom   
   • Pathways Online Platform (POP)   
   • Surveys conducted before and after the workshops  
   • Access to social media  
   • Kitchen tools for each student 
   • Ingredients delivered to each student 

What you’ll do:

1. Provide virtual Food Safety Handling certification training for students  
2. Challenge students to choose a recipe they enjoy that can feed four people over two meals and consists of healthy and affordable ingredients 
3. Deliver a kit to each student with all the kitchen tools they’ll need for the duration of the cooking series 
4. Purchase the ingredients needed for the recipes 
5. Engage student volunteers to help prepare take-home kits for participants and deliver the kits before each session  
6. Create a cookbook with all the recipes to share with the community 

Downloadable resources (e.g. templates, examples used):

• Pathways Kingston conducted quantitative modules over Zoom and engaged participants in a focus group to better understand their experiences. Read the results of their evaluation to get ideas for how to measure the impact of your program location’s activities (Available in English only, please read Pathways Mashteuiatsh’s Breakfast Club activity to access a similar resource in French).