It’s already November and many families will be celebrating some big, food-centric holidays in the upcoming weeks. Think back to how you learned your way around the kitchen; who taught you the basics of grocery shopping, meal planning, and preparing a meal? How are you teaching those lessons to your children and family?
The ELECT program provides more than 120 educational topics to pregnant and parenting students throughout their program enrollment. Cooking, budgeting, meal planning, and healthy choices are components of the ELECT Education Services plan. The ELECT Provider Network agencies offer a variety of opportunities for the students to learn AND practice their skills. Congreso de Latinos Unidos recently coordinated with Holly Stevens, the Dietitian at ShopRite of Bridge and Harbison to provide students with a guided tour and grocery shopping experience with nutrition education.
Communities in Schools of Philadelphia partnered with Penn State University Center to offer the Nutrition Links program to eligible education sites. ELECT Providers also connect with the School District of Philadelphia’s Eat.Right.Philly. (formerly Eat.Right.Now.) program for hands-on workshops in schools.
This summer, Jewish, Family, and Children’s Service (JFCS) provided a 5-week series of workshops for ELECT students that focused on cooking and meal planning. Adrienne Gavern-Tomlinson, Director of Education and Outreach Services, explained that the theme was chosen because “healthy meal planning, cooking, and becoming savvy shoppers are all essential life skills, and the teens were very enthusiastic.” As part of the series, each teen was given an electric skillet to take home, as well as a weekly “kit” of groceries that enabled them to duplicate the recipes for their families. The JFCS ELECT students in this photo were hard at work, making healthy tacos full of vegetables.
If you’re looking for more ways to introduce these skills to your children, check out these community resources for opportunities:
Take a free class at the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Culinary Literacy Kitchen
Food Trust Farmer’s Market-Take a tour, shop, and attend a cooking demonstration
