Cooking at Newark Salvation Army

We haven’t started growing food in the winter yet, but we are still busy introducing healthy fruits and vegetables to children around the Garden State.  It takes many introductions to a new fruit or vegetable before children stop eyeing it with suspicion, which makes introducing new fruits and vegetables a luxury many families cannot afford. During the winter the education team takes rainbow eating on the road, visiting afterschool programs through our partnership with the Community FoodBank of NJ. This year, in addition to our ever popular blind taste tests, we are also cooking with children.

On January 19 we arrived at the Salvation Army in the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark with three teachers, two volunteers, and armloads of supplies. Carrying boxes of supplies, such as child safe knives, cutting boards, immersion blenders, and bags and bags of food we went from our cars up the stairs into the building and down into the basement and around the corner to the kitchen where the Salvation Army serves meals to the neighborhood children. After three trips, we were ready!

With nearly 70 children in attendance, half of the group played games, while the other half prepared food. The first group peeled clementines and made a delicious fruit dip with yogurt, strawberries, and bananas. The second group chopped red cabbage and cucumbers, and juiced limes to make a delicious salad with mangoes. Then students and staff gathered for a feast!

In addition to tasting new foods, or familiar foods in new ways, making food will help the children to prepare their own healthy meals in the future, as they learn skills such as chopping, peeling, and measuring. We look forward to sharing cooking projects with many more children, and even their parents, during the ’off season’.

-Sally