Instead of raiding the pantry for a convenient after-school snack, 11 Brush Prairie kids meet each Tuesday afternoon to learn about healthy cooking.
Around 3 p.m. for the past three weeks, Xanna Burg, a nutrition educator with the Clark County Food Bank, has set up shop at the Rock Solid Community Teen Center for her eager students, who range from preteens to high school juniors. This week, she laid out the ingredients for macaroni and cheese infused with diced broccoli and a honey and peanut butter fruit dip on the side.
“We’re going to compare the mac ‘n’ cheese we make to a boxed mac ‘n’ cheese and decide why ours is healthier,” Burg said. “Anything that you prepare that’s not from a box is going to have less salt. You’re going to know what’s going in it.”
The class is a new venture for the food bank, which teaches a cooking class for adults on food stamps and budgets called Cooking Matters. This year, the staff decided to broaden its focus to a younger group with the new six-week class at Rock Solid, putting an emphasis on teaching the kids about nutrition and food security problems.
“We know that a lot of these kids and a lot of people in general aren’t in ideal situations,” Burg said. “We strategically have targeted this population, hoping that we’re teaching them skills that later in life are going to decrease their dependence on food boxes.”
Not all of the kids necessarily rely on food banks, said Gilda Ciraulo, the executive director of the community center. But regardless of their access to good food at home, the class gives the kids something constructive to do after school, she said.
“They are from all walks of life,” Ciraulo said. “Some are from great families with means and their parents just don’t want them to be alone after school, and then there’s kids that you know would be getting into trouble if it wasn’t for Rock Solid.”
Each week, the kids leave asking Burg for recipes to take home, she said. She plans to give them cookbooks when the last class ends June 10, but some of the students don’t want to wait that long to take the recipes home.
Last week, 12-year-old Charlie Tripp asked Burg for the recipe for the muffins he made in class so he could bake something special for his mom on Mother’s Day. Tripp, who’s been learning to cook for the past few years, said the class is teaching him new techniques on how to work faster in the kitchen.
“That to me tells me that we’re doing something good and we’re working with the right population,” Burg said. “Not only are they having fun when they’re in here and they’re learning stuff, but they’re taking it home and they’re impacting the rest of their family with it.”
The kids start every class with a nutrition lesson. A week ago, they explored why their muffins were healthier than store-bought alternatives. This week, they compared the amounts of carbohydrates, sugar and fiber in various foods: apples, yogurt, Sun Chips and a bottle of Mountain Dew, among others.
Tripp said the class has encouraged him to be more conscientious about the food he eats. Some also have developed a greater appetite for healthy foods, Ciraulo said.
“I think that kids tend to think that healthy tastes bad,” she said. “They were surprised that the pizza was so good even though it was healthier, that they could make it fresh and with the whole-wheat dough.”
