CHEFS IN SCHOOLS

Unique in the country, the Recipe for Success Foundation's Chefs in Schools™ program organizes the professional culinary community to mentor young children, empowering them to create healthy, yet tasty snacks and meals for themselves.

Since our founding, more than 100 professional chefs -- including Houston's finest -- volunteer their time to join Foundation staff chefs in 4th-grade classrooms to deliver hands-on cooking experiences that form the core of our Seed-to-Plate Nutrition Education™. Designed to create a lifetime of respect and preference for healthy food, culinary classes are aligned with our Recipe Garden lessons so that children understand and appreciate the full cycle of their food.

Using specially designed portable cooking carts, volunteer and Foundation staff chefs lead students through monthly explorations of flavor. They begin with how taste buds work together and then over the course of the year move aound the entire "My Plate" with easy-to-execute recipes. Fresh produce from the schools' Recipe Gardens is regularly featured to exemplify our Seed-to-Plate Nutrition Education™ concept. Foundation-devised worksheets feature nutrition, healthy food, and cooking methods integrated into math, science, reading, writing and social studies projects.

Members of our Chefs Advisory Board and Foundation staff chefs also bring their fresh eyes to help create healthy and delicious menus for school lunch programs; conduct cooking classes for parents in schools and community centers; and host field trips to their restaurant kitchens, favorite farms, farmers' markets and grocery stores. During its first decade, the Recipe For Success Seed-to-Plate Nutrition Education™ led more than 30,000 students in Houston and beyond through at least one academic year of classes, establishing in the children a lifelong enthusiasm for the consumption of healthy foods, fresh fruits and vegetables.