Friday is a great day for me, because I get to head on over to the Nevin Community Center in Richmond and hang out with some pretty awesome kids. Not only that, but then I get to be a part of teaching them how to make nutritious meals for themselves.
The program I do this through is a non-profit organization called Three Squares, which mobilizes volunteers across the Bay Area to teach free cooking and nutrition classes to low-income families in the Bay Area. The curricula that Three Squares uses is called Cooking Matters, and was created by Share Our Strength, a nonprofit dedicated to ending childhood hunger. Share Our Strength works with local nonprofits in 33 states to implement the Cooking Matters curricula. Three Squares is the lead partner in the Bay Area for the Cooking Matters Program, which has been up and running since January 1st, 2010.
Cooking Matters’ collaborative program model connects families with food by teaching them how to prepare healthy, tasty, and affordable meals on a limited budget. Professional chefs and nutritionists, and individuals like myself with knowledge of cooking and nutrition (because you don’t necessarily have to be a professional), volunteer their time and expertise to lead hands-on courses that teach adults, teens and kids how to purchase and prepare nutritious foods in healthful, safe and tasty ways. In each class, participants prepare and eat a simple, healthy meal. At the end of each class, they take home a bag of ingredients to prepare that day’s recipes at home. You can check out Three Squares’ Facebook page by clicking here.
This is one of my students in the class, N, and she never ceases to surprise me with some of the things she knows. For example, when discussing fruit most of the kids named the usual favorites, e.g., strawberries, oranges, etc. N, however, likes to mix it up and she threw in dragon fruit, and mangosteen. I didn’t even know what a mangosteen was! Mikaela, the class coordinator, was the only one familiar with it because she’d been to Thailand before, and it’s a fruit native to that region.
In addition, while having a discussion with the kids about what food items belong in certain categories, e.g., yogurt belongs in the dairy category and comes from cows, etc., when we asked the kids where they thought Jello belonged, N, said that it could go in the dairy category, too. At first we, the adults, were like, “uh… no, I don’t think so.” But, then N explained, “well Jello is made with gelatin which is made out of cow’s bones.” Amazing! And, absolutely correct. Most 10-year old kids don’t have that kind of knowledge! Though we still won’t classify Jello as a dairy product 
All of the kids, like E above, are always super excited to learn and cook, and they bring such joy to my heart when I get to see, and teach them.
This is J, and he is both charming and a leader. He loves to help set up before class, and is always ready to participate and keep everyone on track when we get a little distracted.
His sister A, also loves to help and prep things before class gets going.
M, pictured above, is hilarious and can’t help but smile and giggle all the time, which is infectious!
This little guy is not actually in the class. He is E’s little brother, but couldn’t help himself and grabbed a nice juicy grape to pop in his mouth when he got the opportunity.
R, above, is also quite a leader. He always comes in and says he doesn’t feel like cooking. I think he does it to mess with us, because he’s always the first one to volunteer to help out and be a sous-chef, and wants to help everyone at his table cook.
This is our fabulous class coordinator, Mikaela, pictured above. Mikaela makes sure that we have all the ingredients and equipment we need for the day’s nutrition, and cooking lesson. As permanent staff of Three Squares, she also does a ton of other things to make sure that things happen as they should at many other sites and classes as well. Currently there are 21 classes running across the Bay, and they go for 6 weeks. Once this cycle is done, another cycle of classes will begin in March.
This is Cody, Mikaela’s equally fabulous younger sister (pictured above). Cody is the nutritionist for our class, and runs all sorts of cool activities to help the kids really gain an understanding about which food is good for them; what it does for, and to our bodies; and how we can make sure to make good food choices.
Hey, that’s me! One of the kids decided that they should be able to take a picture of me if I get to take some of them. Fair enough 
And, it’s a great picture! Thanks for making me look good kiddo!
Each class starts with some sort of activity to get the kids moving and engaged. Above, you can see Mikaela playing a game that’s kind of like musical chairs with the kids. They had an absolute blast!
Professor J, above, is giving us a recap on last week’s lesson on whole grains. Here he is explaining the anatomy of a grain.
This lesson is all about fat. It’s an activity called “blubber burger.” It enlists the assistance of Crisco to demonstrate how much fat one is eating when choosing, e.g., a McDonald’s or Burger King Burger. N, is spooning out the amount of fat in teaspoons on the bun so the kids can get a visual of it.
Ewwwww! That’s a lot of fat! But, that’s pretty much exactly what you’re eating when you eat that kind of a burger.
We then switch into talking about sugary drinks. The cubes of sugar in the juice box above represent how much sugar is in that particular box of juice (when there was juice in it, of course).
The activity had all of the kids select an emptied out drink container filled with sugar cubes to represent how much sugar was in the particular beverage. Each of them read the label to see how much sugar was in it, and could also visually see how much sugar that was by the number of sugar cubes that were now in there. We then had the kids form a line holding each of their containers. A kid holding an empty water bottle was at one end of the line with no sugar cubes inside the bottle (and representing the best choice one can make when it comes to beverages), to Coca-Cola at the other end of the line that contained 17 sugar cubes!!
A great way to help kids make better beverage choices is to show them they can still drink something that tastes really good, but that can be healthy at the same time, and low in sugar. This is a jug of cucumber and mint flavored water–and most of them really liked it! We also made them strawberry lemonade spritzers (half juice, half club soda to reduce the sugar by half), and peanut butter and banana smoothies (pictured below). Last week we made strawberry banana and spinach smoothies, which were an absolute hit with the kids!
Once the nutrition lesson and activities are over, we move on to cooking. Woohooo! The kids are always really excited to get cooking, and I’m really excited too.
The above pictures show the kids getting all the ingredients together for the “tuna boats.”
J, is having some fun with the cucumbers which we used to make tuna boats out of.
The picture above shows what a tuna boat looks like. Basically, you cut a cucumber in half length wise, take out the seeds with a spoon, and fill it with a tuna salad. Our tuna salad contained green onions, radish, white beans, lemon juice, a little bit of low-fat mayo, mustard, and salt and pepper. Stir it up, and scoop in the middle, and then you have a tuna boat! They are absolutely delicious.
A, is helping prepare a cantaloupe for our fruit kabobs.
Here, you see all of the kids getting into the action of preparing fruit for the kabobs. If you have kids at home, you’d be amazed at how exciting it is for them to help out in the kitchen and assist with breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It also makes them much more interested in eating it, too! So, get your kids in the kitchen with you and soon they may be making dinner or breakfast for you!
J, has really perfected “the claw.” Check out that perfect technique! The claw is the way that you hold your free hand when cutting food with a knife in order to avoid cutting fingers.
S, is really getting into building his kabob. Notice he’s got a nice pattern going there?
Aren’t those fruit kabobs beautiful?! But even better than being beautiful and fun to make, they taste so good once you’re done making them. Simply take bamboo or wooden skewers and the fruit of your choice to do this at home. We also made a special (plain low-fat) yogurt, cinnamon, honey dipping sauce to go along with the kabobs!
See how excited N, is about her kabob!
Like I said before, these guys are loads of fun to be around. Teaching these kids to cook and eat healthy is truly a privilege and so rewarding. Three Squares, and Share Our Strength are always looking for volunteers to teach the nutrition, or cooking portion of the Cooking Matters curricula, as well as class assistants. There are classes for teens, adults, and families. They are located in 33 states across the country, so check and see if there’s a location near you. It is an awesome experience, and a wonderful way to participate in food justice work in your community. For Bay Area Folks that are interested in volunteering with Three Squares, you can get in touch with Sarah Nelson, Three Squares’ Executive Director, at sarah@threesquaremeals.org. You can also feel free to leave me questions in the comment section, and I’d be happy to answer all that I can based on my personal experience with the organization.
