Kids can cook: New preschool culinary class gives students a taste of preparing their own mealsKids can cook: New preschool culinary class gives students a taste of preparing their own meals

About six months ago, a group of approximately 30 preschoolers gathered during the school day to prepare their own salad with the help from staff at FeedWells, a foodservice provider based out of Memphis. 

The activity was a test run of the foodservice provider’s new preschool culinary class which was started after FeedWells heard from students that they would like to cook more with FeedWells' chefs. 

Feedback from that first class “was phenomenal,” says FeedWells Founder and CEO BreAnna Boyd and the foodservice provider now offers its preschool culinary class once a week at one of its school sites to help young learners get familiar with cooking. 

Safety first 

Since the culinary class involves young students, the FeedWells team invested in age-appropriate kitchen equipment to make sure each student stays safe, including plastic knives, plastic cutting boards and kid-friendly kitchen sets that allow students to heat up food safely. 

Each class typically follows a specific format. First, students watch a quick movie that shows them what they’ll be making that day. Next, the students participate in a sing along session about what they’re going to make. During the class when they made salad for example, they sang a song about lettuce.

Afterwards, they’re instructed to put on their chef hat, apron and gloves and use their senses to learn more about the ingredients that they’ll be using, then afterwards, they start cooking.  

“We actually have the items that they just learned about in front of them, so it's tangible. They touch it, they put the item together, and then they taste it,” says Boyd. 

The meal that they make ends up being their lunch for the day, says so the team tries to pick recipes that will meet the meal components required for lunch. 

“We try to ensure that those meals meet those meal components that are required for them to have for the schools,” says Boyd. "Typically, they'll get an additional snack so that they have all five components for the day.”

Making the class a permanent part of the school day

Feedback on the culinary class has been positive so far and Boyd and the team are excited for what’s next. As the second half of the school year continues, they will be introducing FeedWells’ new mascot, Chef FeedWells, who will get to join in on the fun. 

“The kids are going to actually get to cook with him for the first time in February,” says Boyd. “We're going to have Chef FeedWells join the culinary class with them.”

Beyond that, plans are also in the works to find a way to make the culinary class a permanent part of the school day. Some ideas include having the class be a dual enrollment course that would be integrated into curriculum or have the class be an after-school activity that kids can participate in while their parents or caregivers are still at work. 

“This is something that we are really looking to add permanently,” says Boyd, who adds that the class has sparked an interest in cooking for many students.

 “We have parents tell us every day about how their kids are at home trying to cook in the kitchen,” she says.