What is this project about?
Led by local Chefs, Kids Feeding Kids teaches youth to create healthy nutritious meals which aides in their food education journey. Kids Feeding Kids involves meal planning, sourcing nutritional ingredients, prepping, and preparing food. Most of the food prepared will remain at the centre throughout the week and will be distributed to youth to enjoy. The Collingwood Youth Centre (CYC), managed by the Environment Network and Elephant Thoughts Outreach, services youth for drop in as well as a variety of other programs that help youth build skills. Many of these youth come to the CYC right from school and do not leave until the CYC closes at 9pm. Kids Feeding Kids allows us to feed any youth who want food in a stigma free environment. A nutritious diet contributes to overall health, which is essential for optimal growth and development and helps to reduce the risk of many chronic diseases. Youth living in food insecure households experience poorer physical and mental health, and youth are at increased risk of depression, social anxiety and suicide. According to the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), 12% (10.9%, 13.4%) of Simcoe Muskoka households said they had experienced a level of food insecurity at least once in the past 12 months. This is consistent with the 12% (11.3%, 12%) of Ontario households that reported some level of food insecurity during this same time frame. These numbers represent households that report either marginal, moderate, or severe food insecurity. This number gets bigger when looking at children and Youth; about 1 in 6 children live in a household affected by food insecurity.
With the chef, youth will have the opportunity to learn everything from basic food hygiene, food safety, how to follow recipes, cooking terminology to more advanced skills such as using kitchen appliances and knife skills. Youth who participate in Kids Feeding Kids will be shown various cooking methods such as grilling, roasting, baking etc. They will be exposed to all types of world cuisine from sushi making to working on desserts such as creme brulee. Kids Feeding Kids will give them a well rounded education in all things culinary.
With access to our new commercial kitchen and the expertise of amazing Red Seal chefs we will be able to service more youth through skill development and also any youth using the facility who may require food.
Why is this project important to the community?
Kids Feeding Kids will support 500 kids in our community offering them cooking skills, nutritional education and socialization over the course of 1 year. Food deskilling (reducing the level of skill) in the general population has been identified as an impediment to healthy eating, in great part because it has generated reliance on convenience foods that are high in saturated fat, salt and sugar, and because it has added strain to limited food budgets. By developing culinary skills and nutritional understanding youth involved will be better placed to make healthy choices and hopefully in turn be at less dietary risk.
This program will also help the CYC strengthen and create new partnerships with local restaurants and cafes. With these fostered new and strengthened relationships we can create job opportunities for youth in the local area, in the culinary field. With 75 restaurants/cafes between Collingwood/Blue Mountain this program could also have an economic impact on the surrounding workforce. Businesses don’t need to profit at the expense of communities; they can profit because the communities in which they operate, and the people who live there, are well-supported by the local business community. This includes young people. By investing in local solutions that help youth access not just education but skills-development programmes, businesses can create shared value that benefits businesses and communities alike.
The CYC has previously put youth through various certificates both in Kids Feeding Kids and Culinary Internships such as WHMIS and Food handlers safety. This will put youth in a position to already have some of the qualities and certifications needed to step into the workforce in local restaurants. Also by involving local chefs and restaurateurs they will be able to see first hand what skills youth have and need to step into their businesses and become valuable members of the local workforce as they grow up. This can only help a sector that has seen large losses to its workforces locally and nationally due to Covid-19.
