This year our Spring Classroom Gardening and Cooking Program, like so many things this year, looked a little different.
In early March, we were all set to bring our program to 54 classrooms across the Lower Mainland and in Victoria with a team of nearly 200 volunteers who were ready and eager to get into schools and teach kids about growing and cooking healthy food. Over the spring break, we made the difficult decision to postpone the start date of our programming due to concerns related to the coronavirus, but as April came closer, it became clear that our spring classroom program was not going to happen at all this year.
As schools were closed and learning moved to an online, distanced format, we wondered if and how we could still bring hands-on food literacy education to students at home. We chatted with some of the teachers who had signed up for our spring program, asked our volunteers if they’d be interested in helping us to develop some online learning materials, and were able to create Growing Chefs! at Home; a twelve-part video series bringing many of our regular program components to students and families at home.
Just as with our regular classroom program, our virtual program began with some instructional videos to get kids and families growing their own home gardens. It was exciting to see how many different gardens students planted at home. Some had a few pots, some got creative repurposing containers into pots for growing, some had full windowsill gardens, while others had large gardens in their backyard… all showing the many ways we can grow food in an urban setting!
Every Tuesday from March 31st until June 26th, we released a new lesson video and at-home lesson outline on our blog that included art projects, at-home science experiments, scavenger hunts, activity worksheets, movement activities, writing exercises, story readings, and of course, recipes.
Growing Chefs! staff and volunteers invited students, teachers, and families into their home kitchens, living rooms, backyards, and home gardens through a series of videos that explored our connections to food throughout the whole food cycle. In these videos, staff and volunteers brought their skills, knowledge, and passion to each lesson, sharing all of this and more with students just as they would in the classroom. They led lessons on how plants grow, why soil and compost are important, exploring new foods through our senses, why eating healthy is important, how food makes us feel, some basic at home cooking lessons, and more.
The teachers that were going to be a part of our in-school program joined us, sending out each weekly lesson to their students as part of their online learning content. In addition to the classrooms that we would normally be reaching, we had thousands of views, likes, and shares as we shared all of this content through our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter feeds.
We could not have made this shift so quickly and successfully if it weren’t for our amazing program team, the passionate teachers who were eager to incorporate food literacy into their online lesson plans and help us develop the most effective ways to do so, and of course, the incredible volunteers who were more than eager to still share their knowledge, passion, and skills with kids and families.
We have all missed being in schools and working in classrooms this year, but we have been so excited to see how many have been following along with our lessons at home and interacting with us online. Thank you to all the teachers, parents, and students who have shared videos and photos of what you’ve been up to with Growing Chefs! at Home. It has warmed our hearts to hear from you and see your amazing gardens and meals you’ve prepared following along with the lessons.
If you missed any of our Growing Chefs! at Home lessons or are looking to take part in these lessons at home, here is a complete list (with links to content) of all the lessons and activities we created this spring:
Lesson 1- Planting our garden
Lesson 2 - Vegetable Exploration
Lesson 3 - What Vegetables do for us
Lesson 4 - Mindful Eating
Lesson 5 - Foods and Emotions
Lesson 6 - Parts of a Plant & How Plants Grow
Lesson 7 - Exploring Soil & Compost
Lesson 8 - Making a healthy salad and salad dressing
Lesson 9 - Where food comes from, exploring food systems
Lesson 10 - Let’s Make a Stir Fry
While our virtual spring program wraps up with the end of the school year, over the summer we will continue to share ideas and outlines for fun at-home learning activities and recipes on our social media channels. We hope that you will continue to interact with us online!