Virtual Volunteer Spotlight - Meet Rebecca Marshall

When Growing Chefs realized we weren’t going to be able to physically be in the classroom for a while, we quickly began brainstorming how we might be able to connect volunteers with classrooms. It was very important to us that we continue to build connections between local food champions and students, so we asked our volunteers if they’d be interested in connecting virtually.

We weren’t disappointed! Our volunteers were eager to adapt with us by helping to create our virtual Growing Chefs experiences. They have been swapping recipes, filming video lessons, and sharing their knowledge and passion with our learners online, rather than in the classrooms. In the fall we took this one step further by creating our new Vegeta-pals program, where chefs, farmers, and others became virtual pen-pals, communicating directly with a local classroom.

Today we are featuring one of our Victoria-based volunteers who registered to volunteer in the classroom with us last spring. When our programming went completely virtual, she was one of the first to sign on to our new Vegeta-pals program to share her passion for good food with students. Meet Rebecca!

Tell us a little about yourself

Hi! My name is Rebecca Marshall, and I am a professional cook-apprentice working towards my Red Seal certification. Even after cooking for other people all day, I still love to come home and create a nourishing beautiful meal for myself and my family.

Why did you get involved with the work Growing Chefs is doing right now?

I've found that I learn and reaffirm knowledge best by helping others through the material. Growing Chefs was a fantastic opportunity to explore and deepen what I knew of our food system and to share it with young potential chefs. I'm happy to be part of a program that I know I would have enjoyed when I was a kid!

What advice would you give to a child that wants to become a chef?

Try lots of different food! What a fun thing it is to be able to travel the world in your very own kitchen.

Can you share a highlight from being a part of the Vegeta-pal program this year?

I had a delightful surprise when I was assigned my Vegeta-Pal partner. I was at that time working on the second level of my program at Camosun Culinary and my assigned partner was Chef Steve Walker-Duncan, who was the Program Chair - his office was just down the hall from my classroom so it was easy as pie to get together to do our videos! Steve is a fantastic role model and a dynamo when it comes to teaching and cooking and I was so thankful to have such an enthusiastic, talented partner who infused our videos with his great energy!

What We've Been Up To

The start of the 2020/21 school year has looked very different for our schools and for the Growing Chefs program. When schools were closed in March last year and learning shifted online, our program team was able to quickly adapt our classroom program to launch our Growing Chefs At Home Program. This program provided weekly lessons and activity content for teachers to share as a part of their online lesson plans, and for families at home to engage with food literacy learning. 

Given the incredibly positive response to these materials, the Growing Chefs program team continued to build out our online programming to continue offering engaging and interactive food literacy lessons to classrooms and families at home… all focused on teaching kids valuable gardening and cooking skills!

Growing Chefs Home-Learning Program

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Connecting Classrooms with Local Food Professionals Through Our Vegeta-pal Program

The Growing Chefs intermediate program for grades 4-7 went virtual in the fall, with “Growing Chefs At Home” continuing in a new format specifically catering to families and home-learners. We have just wrapped up the first of four cohorts of learners currently engaged in this new form of our intermediate programming. Our remaining cohorts will be concluding their lessons over the next month. Our 200 home-learners are guided through a series of ten themed lessons delivered on a weekly basis that include video lessons, printable worksheets, learning activity ideas, recipes, and more! All lessons aim to help connect learners with local healthy food in a fun and imaginative way.

Do you remember the excitement of having a pen pal when you were in school? In an effort to continue building connections between schools and the local food community, as well as continuing to engage our skilled and passionate volunteer base, Growing Chefs launched a pilot for a new “pen pal” style program in October. Teachers around B.C. signed up to be connected with a local chef or farmer, and we paired their class with local food champions who registered to volunteer as our “Vegeta-pals”. Vegeta-pal pairings exchanged email and video messages and, with support from our Growing Chefs team, these volunteers helped students learn more about healthy local food. Keep an eye out for the opportunity to join our upcoming spring cohort of Vegeta-pals coming soon!

Virtual Field Trips now available for Classrooms and Home-learners

In order to foster community connections and interact more directly with students, Growing Chefs has been developing a series of interactive virtual field trips for classrooms and home learners. After piloting our first field trip with three classrooms in December, we are so excited to announce that these field trips are now open for teachers to register their classes to take part in!

These virtual field trips allow students to explore their local food systems, interact live with local food experts related to the theme of the field trip, see and explore unique locations, and think critically about new ideas… all while staying in the comfort and safety of the classroom or home.

Check out the video below for a teaser of what we’ll explore on our field trip to Fresh Roots Urban Farm and sign your classroom up for one of these upcoming workshops today!

More to come this March!

As Growing Chefs continues to adapt, we recognize that this is still a challenging time for everyone. We are continuing to listen to educators and families to ensure that the programming, content, and support we provide is designed to meet the needs of the community. Our spring primary program for grades 1-3 will be run in a virtual format once again, starting up just after spring break. Since spring is the perfect time to get students’ hands in the dirt, start gardens, and get outside, we are working on some additional materials and support with the Master Gardeners Association of Vancouver to help teachers and schools get their students growing this year! Stay tuned for more updates as spring approaches.

Vegeta-pals

Our program team and our chef and community volunteers really missed being in the classroom this year. Although we couldn’t visit in person, we came up with a new way to connect with B.C. kids.

The Vegeta-Pal Program!

A modern and tasty pen pal project… with a twist! This fall we paired elementary school classrooms across the province with volunteer food systems champions to build relationships, interest, and connection around growing and cooking food. The Vegeta-pal program provided a new way for us to deliver upon our mission of connecting chefs, kids, and communities to foster systemic change towards healthy, sustainable, and just food practices.

What do the teachers think?

Our classroom has had the opportunity to work with the Growing Chefs program for the past few years. It was an awesome program, very informative and hands-on for the students. We loved having the chefs in the classroom as they were very knowledgeable and interacted well with the kids, their enthusiasm about food was infectious! This year, we have been given the opportunity to work with vegeta-pals as we cannot have the chefs physically visit our classroom. So far, they have been great! The students loved the first video and activity. We are looking forward to the next few weeks of the program.

- Michelle Cavanagh
Grade 5/6 Classroom Teacher Champlain Heights Elementary, Vancouver

How do the volunteers feel?

The Vegeta-pal Program through Growing Chefs has been a fantastic inspiration for us. This virtual program has allowed us to connect with local children to share our favourite food stories, culinary inspirations & ultimately, to really connect with our future foodies, farmers, & chefs on what they love to eat & where the food they are enjoying comes from. A bit of culinary education, geography & math is added to the pot for good measure. One of us is a farmer, & the other, a Chef, so we were inspired to become vegeta-pals simply to connect kids to their food. Where it comes from, how it grows & to encourage a healthy understanding of their favourite foods. We are hopeful that our vegeta-pals will be inspired to learn more about their favourite foods, hopefully just as inspired as we are to teach them about the process involved from growing to eating!"

- Miche & Patrick
Vegeta-pals, Vancouver Island

And most importantly, what do the kids think?

“We have had lots of learning and fun, such as our online field trip and learning about the six parts of a plant (stem, roots, leaves, seeds, fruits, and the flowers) from our vegeta-pals. Some other things we learned are planting in an urban environment is called Urban Agriculture. Urban Agriculture is important because we can’t always rely on imported food. A good way to help is to plant seeds on your balcony backyard, or somewhere else.

- Brendan, age 10

Right now we can’t have anyone come into our class, but we are in the new Vegeta-pal Program. I am a vegetarian and enjoy eating and cooking with vegetables.

- Sabrina, age 10

“My Vegeta-pals are amazing and cool. I can’t wait until I learn about every vegetable so I can make salad every day.”

-Arianna, age 10