Getting Back to Our Roots with Food Traditions: Part 3

Our staff and board have been sharing our food traditions from home with you this month. This week’s features are Kitchari, Broccoli Trees, and Meatballs. 

Farah - Growing Chefs! Fundraising and Operations Assistant: My family is from Kenya and Uganda, and my ancestors from India. Kitchari, a porridge-like dish made of split mung beans and rice, was a staple in our house growing up. Although traditionally cooked as is  (and eaten with a side of vegetable curry),  there is also the option to add vegetables, oils, spices, and garnishes to the mix. This dish is super easy to make, satiating, nutrient-dense, and very affordable. In Ayurveda, kitchari is used as a cleanse for removing toxins and aiding digestion.

Cayley - Growing Chefs! Program and Operations Assistant: When we were young, my brother and I didn’t share my Mom’s love of vegetables (unless they were fresh from the garden!). Being the veggie advocate she is, she would pose us challenges like “nobody’s leaving this table until you each eat 11 carrot sticks!” or “everybody must eat 6 broccoli trees!”. While this is likely a common story in many households, Mom continued this into our adult years, including our friends, houseguests, and anybody else we shared meals with - long after we’d developed our own love for vegetables. It’s been a couple decades since this began, but I still get to enjoy fond memories of childhood meals when I sit down to eat with my partner or long-time friends, and they tell me “you must eat 13 grapes!”.

Afton - Growing Chefs! Program Liaison:  When I go visit my mom I often request my favourite dish from my childhood, “Porcupine Meatballs”. To make Porcupine Meatballs you mix uncooked rice with ground meat and seasoning, form meatballs and then bake in tomato sauce. The cooked rice pokes out of the meatballs so that they look a bit like little porcupines taking a bath in tomato sauce. While this dish doesn’t go back generations (and lacks vegetables), it is really yummy and reminds me of my childhood. I’m not sure why this dish sticks in my brain, I don’t recall if we ate it often and it wasn’t something we ate on special occasions, but I remember eating it and it reminds me of my mom. I don’t think I have ever cooked Porcupine meatballs for my family, but now that I think about it, it sounds like a great thing to have for dinner!

How Plants Grow - Celery Experiment

This week, we are learning about how plants grow and how all the parts of the plant contribute to their growth. Here is a fun and easy way to demonstrate how the stem (also called a stalk or leaf stalk) of a celery plant carries water and nutrients all the way from its roots up to the leaves of even the tallest of plants.

You Will Need:

• A celery stalk (or two) with leaves still attached

• A cup or mason jar

• Water 

• Food Colouring (red or blue work best for this experiment)

Instructions: 

1) Cut the bottom inch off on the celery stalk.

2) Fill the jar about halfway up with water.

3) Add 5 or so drops of food colouring into the water (a few more drops if you have a larger vessel with more water).

4) Place the jar in a sunny location and wait 2 hours.

5) Observe the celery stalks. You may see the food colouring working its way up the stalk (moving through the xylem of the celery plant). Xylem are tiny tubes in the plant (like veins in our bodies) that move water from the roots to the leaves in a plant. Because we have added food colouring to the water, you should be able to see the colour as the water moves up the stalk toward the leaves.

6) Break off a small piece of the leaf stalk, you may see food colouring in the xylem.

7) Wait overnight. In the morning, observe your celery stalks and leaves. Did the food colouring make its way to the celery leaves?

Discussion Questions:

What happens to the water once it reaches the leaves?

• Some of the water is used by the plant’s leaves to make food through the process of Photosynthesis. Sunlight provides the energy for plants to make carbon dioxide (what we breathe out) and water into sugars (food) and oxygen (what we breathe in).

• Sometimes you might notice droplets of water on the ends of the leaves of a plant, this often is a good indicator for houseplants that the soil is very moist. When a plant has more water than it needs the leaves release some of this water to be evaporated into the air from its leaves. This process is called Transpiration and can actually help the plant take up more water.

How is the water and food colouring moving up the plant?

• The process of water moving from roots to leaves is called Capillary Action. Water molecules like to stick together and to the walls of the tubes that make up what is called a plant’s xylem. These tubes run from the plant’s roots, up the stem, and all the way up to their leaves. As water then evaporates from the leaves it pulls up more water from the roots helping water to move up the plant.

This week we’ve been talking about and learning the six different parts of a plant. In this activity, we learned about how the roots, stem, and leaves of a plant all work together to help it get the water it needs using a celery stem. When we eat celery we are eating the stem of the plant (also called a stalk or leaf stalk) of the celery plant.

• Think about what other stems, roots, flowers, seeds and leaves we eat on a regular basis. You may never look at your favourite vegetables in the same way! 

Expansion Activity:

Try using a large celery stalk and splitting it from the bottom to about halfway up the stalk. Place one half of the stalk into a container with blue food colouring and the other half into a container with red food colouring. What do you think will happen when the colour from each reaches the part of the stalk where the two halves are joined? What will happen when the colours reach the leaves?

Don’t forget to wrap up this experiment by enjoying a delicious celery snack. That’s right - this celery is still edible and yummy, so don’t let it go to waste!

Go Ahead and Get “Soily”: Ten Things Kids Learn in the Garden

Yesterday was a big day at my house, our windowsill garden started to SPROUT! We planted our seeds and waited... waited... waited. Just when we thought that maybe we did it wrong, POP, POP, POP, sprouts shooting up in all our pots (tomatoes, beans, and peas). Now you are probably thinking that this doesn’t sound very exciting, but two things: We have been socially isolating, so these sprouts are the only live “guests” we have had in a couple of months. We also have a 7-year-old kid, and the best thing about kids is that they appreciate how cool seeds and sprouts are. They are genuinely pumped to see those little sprouts pop out of the soil. Not only are these little sprouts adding some excitement to our life, but they are also an important part of the hands-on learning we are doing at home this spring.

What exactly might we learn from these sprouts? Here is a list:

Math: 

Counting, Patterns, Estimating, Measuring, Graphing, Calculating (volume, area and weight).

Easy “Peasy” Garden Math Activities:

• Count the seeds

• Make a pattern with seeds 

• Measure the growth of seedlings

• Graph the growth of a seedling over time

• Estimate the number of seedlings that will grow or how many (fruit/vegetables) we will harvest

• Calculate the weight of your harvest 

• Calculate the volume of soil you will need to fill planters

• Calculate surface area of a leaf  

Science: 

Seeds (and their parts), pollinators, water cycles, parts of the plant, senses and seasons (this list could go on forever). The garden is also the perfect place to conduct a little science experiment. 

Easy “Peasy” Science Experiment to try:

1) Plant seeds in three small pots label them as 1, 2 and 3:

• Give seed 1 just water (put it in a dark spot)

• Give seed 2 just sunlight (no water)

• Give seed 3 both sun and water

2) Make a hypothesis about what might happen.

3) Let the seeds grow for about 2 weeks. 

4) Keep a log of how all three seeds are growing and test your hypothesis.

* For older learners you could try other variables (feed one seed soda instead of water, play nice music for one seed, put one seed outside and one inside). 

Responsibility:

Watering, ensuring adequate sunlight, fertilizing and transplanting are great responsibilities that kids can take-on in the garden. Building a sense of responsibility will be useful in school, friendships, within your family, and in the community.  

Resiliency & Creativity:

One of the best opportunities for learning in the garden is when things don’t work out as planned. When things don’t grow (or they wilt, freeze, or overheat) kids have the opportunity to learn that it is ok to fail and also have the opportunity to think creatively to solve the challenge.

Appreciation:

An appreciation for the amount of planning, work, and care that is required to transform a seed to a fruit/vegetable. Even more appreciation for the farmers that grow food on a much larger scale.

Patience:

Remember the part at the beginning when I said that we waited ...waited ...waited? We only waited about a week, for a kid this might feel like an eternity, but it is a great way to practice being patient and a good reminder that instant is not always better. 

Ownership and Pride:

Kids will feel proud that they can tell their family, friends, and teachers about what they have cared for and grown. They might even get to share their harvest!

Go Ahead and Get “Soily”:

Soil, worms, and bugs sometimes get the bad rap as being, “eww - gross!”. Introducing kids to all the cool things soil, worms, and bugs do will make them more likely go ahead and get their hands soily. Science tells us that playing and working with soil is good for kids' mental and physical health. Grown ups too!

Dexterity:

Planting seeds, transplanting, digging, and harvesting are a great way to develop fine motor skills. This can be especially useful for younger gardeners. 

Discovery: 

Eureka! I see a tiny tomato! The garden is the perfect place to see many amazing things in action. It is a perfect place to discover shoots, buds, flowers, bugs, worms, fruit and vegetables. 

Blog Post written by Afton Bell of Growing Chefs!

Growing Chefs at Home: Lesson 6 - How do plants grow?

Chef Selma and her broccoli friend are back! This week, we will check in on our garden and chat about how plants grow! How is your windowsill vegetable garden doing?

Getting ready for this lesson

If you have a little windowsill garden going, make sure you are close to it for this video, because we will be talking about what you can see in the garden!

Materials needed for this lesson:

• Clean pair of scissors

• Colander or bowl

• Sheet of paper

• Pencil

• Coloured pencils or crayons

• Parts of a plant activity sheet (if you have access to a printer but not required to enjoy this lesson)

Today we’ll talk about plants, how they grow, and the different parts of a plant as well as think about some different vegetables and what part of the plant they might be. There are some exploring, writing, and drawing exercises in this lesson. You can expect this lesson to fill about 20 minutes. Be sure to keep scrolling past the video for some additional at-home activities!

Related Activities:

1. Get moving and stretch out with our follow-along video of our vegetable stretch!

2. How do the parts of a plant work together and how does water get from the roots to the leaves? Check out this simple science experiment we’ve outlined for you to do at home using a celery stem to track the movement of water up the plant to the leaves.

3. Our gardens are growing more and more every day now. We’ve got a fun BINGO game to get kids exploring in the garden and to teach them some new garden and plant-related words! A note that some of these terms are a bit more advanced making this a fun learning game for kids of all ages and adults alike! We’ve prepared 5 different bingo cards as well as a list of these new terms to explore here.

Our Spring program is aimed at kids in grades 1, 2, and 3, but folks of all ages will likely learn something new! If it’s possible for an adult to be around during these lessons, that would be great. Our growing chefs might need their help a couple of times. We will let you know in the video when there are good moments to offer some help.

You can find this new online content here on our website, and we are making announcements about it on our social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). 

Thank you so much for your patience while we reinvent ourselves and our programs.

Getting Back to Our Roots with Food Traditions: Part 2

We have more food traditions to share from our staff and board. This week we are talking about kale, latkes, and homegrown vegetables.

Chef Selma - Growing Chefs! Chef Educator: In Holland, we ate kale way before it was cool. The name for kale in Dutch translates to “farmers cabbage”. We call it that because traditionally it was the crop that farmers could, and would, keep for themselves and eat all season round right off their land. Kale always tastes better after the first frost, because it forces the plant to turn some of its starches into sugar. My dad taught me these things when I was little, while crouching next to me beside the car, pointing at a field full of it on what I remember as many, many wet and windy autumn days, before driving past a Brussels sprouts field and doing the same thing there. While not native to the Netherlands, to most people there the word boerenkool (farmers cabbage) signifies the one dish most connected to our national identity. You’d almost think we’ve been making it since time began (or at least since the 17th century). As culinary tradition in my country dictates: it shall be mixed with mashed potatoes, and served with sausage. For a recipe of my favourite nostalgic comfort food, please click here.

Jaydeen - Growing Chefs! Development and Communications Director: My wife is Jewish so in recent years I’ve been introduced to the wonderful world of Jewish food traditions. My favourite is latkes during Hanukkah. We eat them hot and top them with sour cream and homemade applesauce. At first I thought the combination was crazy (and I embarrassingly ate them like hashbrowns with hot sauce or ketchup) but now I love the dish served the same way as her family. Oftentimes we will use the leftover latkes for brunch. Latke bennys! 

Amrit - Growing Chefs! Board Member: My grandma used to live down the street from us in Prince George. The summers are short there but she had a huge garden in her backyard and would always plant a wide variety of vegetables including peas, carrots, zucchini, and cauliflower. My brother and I would go there every week to “help in the garden” but most of the time we’d end up eating whatever we pulled. She would have us help her cook different dishes and while we didn’t realize it at the time, we both developed an appreciation of fresh vegetables and a life-long love of cooking that we hope one day to pass on to our kids!

Do you have any food traditions in your home? We would love to hear about them!

Growing Chefs! At Home: Lesson 5

Welcome to our fifth lesson of Growing Chefs! at Home. This lesson is all about food and our emotions. Chef Afton, her kiddo, and a superstar team of volunteers are here to talk about food and its connection to our emotions. Don’t miss the extra video in our lesson this week: Chef Ben making zoodles from his own kitchen!

This is the fifth lesson in our Growing Chefs! at Home series, following Lesson Four last week, where we learned about mindful eating. Keep an eye on our social media platforms and website every Tuesday morning for new lessons!

During this lesson, we will discuss the basic emotions and discover how food can be connected to these emotions. In Lesson Three, we learned about how food is connected to how our body feels physically, but food is also connected to how we feel emotionally. Foods can also remind us of times, places and people. Eating pineapple might remind you of a tropical vacation and make you feel relaxed, or the smell of tomatoes might remind you of your grandma’s garden and make you feel happy! The smell of some foods (like mint) can also make us naturally feel relaxed or energized. Everyone has a different emotional connection to food, so we have asked our volunteers and supporters to let you all know how food makes them feel! Special thanks to everyone that sent in a video clip. We will finish off this lesson with an easy activity that you can do at home next time you are snacking on some vegetables. 

We would love to hear about how food makes you feel! Tag us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to share with us.

Below, you will find Chef Ben Mattman, from the Vancouver Marriott Hotel, sharing his feelings about zucchini with us, and creating a super fun zoodle dish!

You can find all of our new online content here on our website. We will also be announcing and releasing more fun interactive activities on our social media channels. Thank you for joining us again in our virtual classrooms this week!

Getting Back to Our Roots With Food Traditions

Every culture has food traditions. Food is part of how we celebrate, comfort, make friends, communicate and so much more. Over the next few months the Growing Chefs! Staff and Board will be sharing the food traditions that we have at home. The first tradition we would like to share is from our Executive Director, Helen Stortini. 

Helen Stortini - Growing Chefs! Executive Director: For my family, every Saturday night is pasta night. No one’s sure exactly when the tradition began, but my dad, John, recalls it starting with his three of his older sisters, Rita, Mary, and Valeria back in the 1950s in Northern Ontario. As the youngest of seven siblings, my dad’s sisters were much older and had families of their own by the time he was a school-aged boy. By then, it was just my dad and my poppa Giovanni at home—my grandmother Anna passed away when my father was very young. My poppa often worked nights so Saturday evenings found my dad crashing dinner at my one of my Auntie’s homes. Each of his sisters had their own (delicious) variation of a red sauce and meatballs. My mom, although not Italian, learned to make her own version of this sauce after my parents married and, in my entirely unbiased opinion, she makes the best, softest, most delicious meatballs I’ve ever eaten. Saturday night pasta carried on through my childhood, my teens, and continues to this day for my parents back in Sault Ste. Marie. Every Saturday morning, my mom gets up early, puts on a pot of sauce, makes those special meatballs, and then with my dad’s help, rolls out fresh pasta. 

The Stortini siblings, circa 1971

In the last month, as my family has tried to connect more often with video calls during these isolating times (and are so grateful to have the privilege to do so), nearly seventy years after the Stortini Sister’s Family Pasta Night started, we’ve forged a new tradition and taken our family Pasta Night online. Every week, my mom and dad in the Soo, my sister, brother-in-law, and niece in Austin, and my son and husband here in Vancouver, gather around our tables and log online to dine. The menu in each home varies as we incorporate local and seasonal fare from our respective regions. Past menus include lasagna, tagliatelle with mushrooms, spaghetti with clams, and of course, red sauce and meatballs. But it’s always pasta. In these uncertain times, we may feel farther apart than ever, but we also feel closer than we’ve been in ages.

John with sisters Rita, Mary, Nita, and Val, circa 1999

Fun Fact: Stortini is actually a pasta shape and translates to “little crooked ones”. They are wee elbow shaped noodles that look like a tiny macaroni.  

We would love to learn about the food traditions you have in your home (especially traditions that involve vegetables!). We hope you will comment below and tell us all about it.

Growing Chefs! At Home: Lesson 4

Welcome to our fourth lesson on “Mindful Eating”. Chef Farah is back, and this week we will go over the benefits of mindful eating and how to incorporate this technique into your everyday life.

This is the fifth video in a series, following Lesson Three last week, where we learned all about nutrition. Keep an eye on our social media platforms and website every Tuesday for new lessons!

When was the last time you thought about how you eat? For many of us, it is so common to eat on the go, in front of the TV or during a meeting. This seemingly unimportant detail, can place a huge toll on our body, impacting everything from our digestive health to our relationship with food. On the flip-side, eating mindfully, or with a “conscious awareness”, allows us to be present, focus on what we eat, and connect with our food. We are more able to enjoy the flavours, and listen to our body’s cues on when we are full. This skill of slowing down is important for those of all ages, allowing us to develop a healthy relationship with food and positive eating habits. 

Below is more information on the benefits of mindful eating, tips on how to incorporate this technique into your daily life and a 5-minute video with Chef Farah going through a Mindful Eating Meditation. If you wish to do this exercise on your own, please click here for a PDF version of our sample script.

1. Recognize Hunger Cues

Did you know it takes us around 20-minutes to notice if we are full? Our body releases a hormone called “ghrelin” (or gremlin as I like to call it), which is what tells us we’re hungry; and “leptin” which tells us that we’re satiated. Rather than binge and emotional eating, mindful eating encourages us to eat slower and better tune into the brain-gut connection so we can better tune into these.

2. Better Digestion and Absorption of Nutrients

Even when doing something we perceive as passive, like watching TV or eating on the go, our body is more prone to be in the sympathetic, or “fight or flight” mode, as opposed to the parasympathetic, or “rest and digest” mode. When we are in the sympathetic mode, our body uses all of our energy for our external organs, compromising our abilities to digest. Eating mindfully encourages us to be in our parasympathetic state, where our body is more focused on taking in nutrients.

3. Engage the Senses

As we take the time to eat more slowly, we are able to reconnect with our senses; savouring each flavour, aroma and texture of what we are eating. Rather than focusing on the many distracting thoughts we may have, we are able to be present, and show gratitude and appreciation for what’s in front of us. Our digestion begins with our smell, and taking the time to chew properly is so important in how our body recognizes and assimilates food.

4. Respect Individual Eating Habits

Nowadays there are so many fads and diets out there, and nutrition research is constantly changing. We label food as “good” or “bad”, “healthy” or “unhealthy”, and one minute something is beneficial for us, the next it is not. It is time to move away from these stereotypes, and understand that what works for one person, might not work for another. There is no “ideal diet” or body shape, and although there are many recommendations on how we can be eating, it is important to listen to your individual body. We all have our own beliefs around food, and bringing awareness to this can help shift these.

Now that we know all the incredible benefits of eating mindfully, below are some suggestions on how to incorporate mindful eating with the whole family. 

Eat Communally, In a Distraction Free Zone: Make it a priority to have all family members sit down together, eating in a distraction-free zone. During this 1-2hr window, avoid the usage of any technology (TV, phone, radio, etc.). Encourage positive and light conversation, and use this as an opportunity to connect and engage over the enjoyment of food. Before eating, have everyone say one thing they are grateful for that day. 

Have a Conversation: Take the time to chat about the foods you are eating. Notice the colours, tastes, textures and sounds. Chat about the foods you are eating, and how they benefit us. Encourage everyone to tune in and see how they feel, and eat only until they are full. Consider asking questions such as “How hungry am I? How do I feel when eating this meal?”. 

Make it a Game: For younger children, fill an ice-cube tray with different types of foods. Have your child pick what they want to eat. It’s amazing how intuitive children can be, and they will pick what they want to eat that day, based on what they feel their body needs. For older children, see who can eat the slowest, challenging to put the fork down after every bite.

Resist Boredom/Treat Eating: Rather than using processed foods as a treat, mindlessly snacking, or eating just because, try and tune to see what is really going on. Find other ways to stay occupied and promote favourable behaviours.

We hope these suggestions help and would love to hear from you! Feel free to write us a comment or share on social media how eating mindfully goes for you.

You can find all of our new online content here on our website. We will also be announcing and releasing more fun interactive activities on our social media channels. Thank you for joining us again in our virtual classrooms this week!

When it comes to helping families, there can never be too many cooks in the kitchen!

COVID-19 has required the entire world to re-examine how communities operate. Here’s how we fit in.

Those of us in the local food scene already informally work together and share common goals, so teamwork is not new for Growing Chefs! and Fresh Roots. We’ve been in cahoots for a couple of years now. In fall 2019, we launched LunchLAB, an innovative and educational school meal pilot program. 

In LunchLAB, students learned to grow their own food, supplement that food from local farms, and with the support of their teacher and chef-in-residence, learn to cook for themselves and hundreds of their peers twice a week. Through LunchLAB, we wanted to provide:

• meals that strengthen local food systems and support local farms; 

• meals that provide non-stigmatizing access to those that need it most; 

• meals that are nourishing, safe, healthy, and delicious; 

• meals that kids and youth want to eat. 

With the closure of schools due to COVID-19, Fresh Roots and Growing Chefs!, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Centre, 
Ono Vancouver, and the Vancouver School Board (VSB), redesigned LunchLAB to become LunchLAB: Chefs for Families. This new program provides healthy, delicious, chef-prepared meals to families in need.

Please see the end of this blog to learn more about the collaborators’ involvement, because there’s no way we could do this all on our own!

Times can be tough for Vancouver families right now, and even tougher for those families who may have already been struggling. We are offering families, identified by Youth and Family Workers at the VSB, healthy, chef-prepared meals that provide nourishment and dignity at this uncertain time. Both Growing Chefs! and Fresh Roots believe food can be a catalyst for positive change and a source of joy and inspiration, even during a crisis.

Before, LunchLAB was serving up to 440 lunches per week. Now, we’re at 5,500 meals! That’s more than a 1000% increase! These meals are made available for pick up or delivery two days a week to 260 local families. Created by professional chefs and composed of restaurant-quality dishes, the menus are carefully and thoughtfully crafted to bring comfort and enjoyment. 

And they’re not just healthy, they’re absolutely delicious, and kid-approved!

Plus, we’re happy to be able to provide meaningful, paid work for chefs and kitchen professionals who would otherwise not be working. Growing Chefs! and Fresh Roots is currently providing more than 180 hrs/week of employment for our chef teams from Ono Vancouver and the Italian Cultural Centre. A huge THANK YOU to both the Italian Cultural Centre and Pacific Restaurant Supply who have donated the use of their kitchen facilities and equipment for the chef teams to prepare and portion the meals. AMAZING!

It’s also super important to us that we support the entire food system including local sourcing and diversion of food waste. Thanks for working with us and thank you for your donations Cropthorne Farm, Discovery Organics, Gordon Food Service, Nature’s Path, and Yen Bros Food Service.

And it’s not just food that the community is contributing. Fresh Prep generously donated cold packs for safe delivery of the meals, Fresh St Market donated paper bags for packing meals, Lyft has donated free rides for families to pick up meals, and Odd Society Spirits donated hand sanitizer for our volunteer delivery drivers. THANK YOU!

Now, We Need Your Help!

Program activities would not be possible without volunteers. If you can volunteer your time, or would like more information about what volunteering looks like, please email Amanda Adams, amanda@growingchefs.ca. 

We also know that not everyone is in a place to make a donation right now, and we understand. But, if you or your employer are, we hope you’ll Order Up* a chef-prepared meal for a family in need with a donation today! Each time you place an order, you provide fresh, healthy, restaurant-quality meals, salad making kits, fresh produce, and pantry staples to local families in need, RIGHT NOW.

$5 Order up an individual serving (every donation matters!)

$20 Order up one meal for a family of 4

$50 Order up three days of meals for a family of 4

$100 Order up meals for one family of 4 for a week

$200 Order up meals for two families of 4 for a week

$500 Order up meals for five families of 4 for a week

* This project is a partnership and contact and donation information will be shared with both charities, Growing Chefs! and Fresh Roots.

The cost of LunchLAB: Chefs for Families is $77,000 per month and donations are required to continue operation. 

Financially Supported By:

• Community Food Centres Canada

• SVP Vancouver

• Vancouver Foundation

• Two generous anonymous family foundations

• Additional individuals in the community

Participating Collaborators: 

• Italian Cultural Centre provides LunchLAB with:

  • In-kind use of their entire facility and equipment to prepare, portion, and distribute the meals 

  • Leadership, expertise and culinary talent from their Executive Chef Jackson Noah, their chefs, staff, and catering division  

  • Community connections and supplier connections for in-kind support and donated food/fresh produce. 

• 
Ono Vancouver provides LunchLAB with:

  • Support developing the new LunchLAB program concept, model, scale, and operations

  • Leadership, expertise, and culinary talent from Executive Chef TJ Conwi, one of the LunchLAB chef-in-residences, and his team of chefs

  • Community connections and supplier connections for in-kind support and donated food/fresh produce. 

• Vancouver School Board provides LunchLab with: 

  • The list of participating families. Each week, the Manager of Enhanced Services and Youth and Family Workers from across the VSB sign up families they feel will best benefit from participating in the meal program. 

Program Contacts:

• Helen Stortini | Executive Director, Growing Chefs!

helen@growingchefs.ca | 778-858-0909

• Alexa Pitoulis | Interim Executive Director, Fresh Roots

alexa@freshroots.ca | 778-764-0DIG (0344), ext. 101

Communications/Fundraising Contacts:

• Jaydeen Williams | Development & Communications Director, Growing Chefs!

jaydeen@growingchefs.ca | 604-710-1677

• Caroline Manuel | Communications and Engagement Manager, Fresh Roots

caroline@freshroots.ca | 778-764-0DIG (0344), ext. 108

#LunchLAB #ChefsForFamilies #OrderUp #GrowingChefs #FreshRoots

Thank you to our volunteers!

It’s National Volunteer Week, and while we are always incredibly grateful for our amazing team of volunteers, this week in particular, we want to give them an extra special shout out for helping make our organization what it is. This year we are feeling particularly grateful (and even a little emotional) as we reflect on what our volunteers mean to us at Growing Chefs!

Let’s start by thanking our amazing team of 200 plus volunteers that were trained and ready to bring our hands-on gardening and cooking program into 58 elementary classrooms across B.C. this spring. What a cool group of chefs, farmers, gardeners, nutritionists, educators, and community members you are! I can’t tell you the number of times that a Growing Chefs! staff member says, “I just talked to the most awesome/knowledgeable/passionate volunteer”. Thank you for giving us your time and for being so excited to share your energy with kids. 

When we learned that our teams would not be in the classroom this spring it was definitely disappointing, but we knew we had a group of volunteers that could help us create something new. Our staff team got to work on brainstorming other ways to teach kids, help meet the new needs in the community, and support our friends in the food industry. As always, our volunteers have stepped-up in whatever ways they can to work with us during this shift and are at the heart of everything we are doing. Here is what we have been working on together:

A Virtual Spring Program
more info at growingchefs.ca/whats-new

We are proud to be offering our Spring Program virtually with Growing Chefs! At Home, so families can incorporate food literacy into their home learning. What makes our classroom program so great is the wealth of knowledge, skill, and passion for healthy food that our volunteers bring with them into the classroom. As we have moved to offering lessons virtually, many of our volunteers have come forward as guest bloggers, are virtually inviting us into their home kitchens and gardens by creating lesson videos, and sharing their knowledge so we can still bring their vibrance and expertise to families and kids.

Your energy brings our curriculum to life. Many volunteers and supporters are sharing our work on social media, and sending us words of encouragement. These small things make a big difference to our work and help spread the word about the work we are doing. Thank you for working with us in this new way and please keep those ideas coming!

A New LunchLAB: Chefs for Families Program
more info at growingchefs.ca/lunch-lab

This past fall we started a pilot project in collaboration with Fresh Roots called LunchLAB. In LunchLAB, students grow their own food, supplement that food from local farms, and learn to cook for themselves and up to 185 of their peers twice a week.

Fresh Roots and Growing Chefs!, working with the Vancouver School Board and a fantastic team of collaborators and supporters (including Italian Cultural Centre and Ono Vancouver), quickly pivoted our innovative LunchLAB educational in-school meal program to offer students and their families delicious, healthy, chef-prepared meals out of school. These meals not only provide much-needed nourishment, but meaningful employment for chefs and kitchen professionals who would otherwise not be working.

This quick move to get healthy meals to those in need couldn’t have happened without the outstanding supporters and volunteers who have rallied with us to help us prepare, package, and deliver these chef-prepared meals twice a week. We are incredibly grateful and inspired by your support of this move.

 Supporting You

Growing Chefs! has been supported for the last 15 years by phenomenal volunteers that have made our organization what it is today. We are especially grateful to have so many past and current volunteers from the local food community that have shared their passion for food with so many kids.

As many of the people who support us are now finding themselves faced with unprecedented challenges, we are working to ensure we support this incredible community that has long supported us. We are actively sharing your work on our social media channels so that our followers know how they can help you as well. Please reach out and let us know if there are other ways that we can help!

Happy National Volunteer Week!