A free virtual course aiming to educate local kids on food prep, knowledge, and sustainability starts tomorrow.

The six-week 'Kids in the Kitchen' program will focus on a different subject, including snacks, desserts, and growing your own food.

Owner of Divine Cooking, Chef Darren Nixon, says the goal is to teach cooking fundamentals all while teaching participants about local food sources and food insecurity.

"Basically, the mandate of this whole program is to educate and bring awareness to this age group on the importance of society having access to enough quality food to sustain active and healthy lifestyles."

The course, while mainly aimed at local youth, is intended for child/parent teams.

Nixon says he hopes the system will allow for parents to continue making use of the lessons with their kids.

"The kids are the people that are kind of signing up, but of course the people that are attending this are a parent and child team. I'm hoping to kind of educate both parents and the youth together... hopefully with the idea that the parent might hold onto a little bit more of this information to kind of keep it going in the household."

Another focus will be local food sources and food sustainability.

Nixon says a goal of his is to teach locals that food doesn't just come from the supermarket.

"I really like the idea of bringing the awareness that there's food growing in our region, and if we follow a season, there's always quite a few different ingredients that are available to us here. I really like that idea of getting to know the path your food took to get to your plate."

He says the ability to grow your own food is invaluable.

"Growing your own food, it's a lifelong skill and it'll serve you for the rest of your life... You have quality in terms of better flavour and better nutritional value simply because it didn't travel a long distance. There's less environmental impact, obviously no packaging, no transportation, et cetera. Depending on whether you're growing your own food or supporting a neighbour or another producer in the area, it supports our local economy as well."

For more information, click here.

This program was funded by the Emerging Leaders in Health Promotion grant, which is sponsored by the Alberta Medical Association and MD Financial Management/Scotiabank Healthcare+.

 

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