William Byrd Community House partners with the Richmond Chapter of Women Chefs and Restaurateurs to provide healthy cooking classes for summer program kids and their families.

Chefs Ellie Basch and Sally Schmidt were already exploring public schools to work with because of the Chefs Move to Schools conference held in early June, an initiative of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign to fight childhood obesity.  When Ellie recently visited our Byrd House Farmers Market and met with WBCH Library & Education Center director, Patty Parks, with about 30 kids enrolled in the WBCH Early Childhood Program, “We immediately adopted each other for the summer!” said Parks, “These kids are already familiar with gardening in our community garden, planting, weeding, watering, and harvesting in our new Byrd House Farmlet, and shopping and participating in our Byrd House Market.  Now they get a chef to help them pull it all together at the table.”

The partnership with the Richmond Women Chefs & Restaurateurs allows WBCH to provide a nutritional educational program for the Early Childhood summer program students and families in the form of a cooking class, Chefs R 4 Kids! “Not many of us get the chance to have a real chef teach us how to make our meals. This class will provide these families with a head start on establishing better eating habits for the future,” stated Robert Bolling, Executive Director of WBCH. 

All sessions will be held on Thursday evenings, immediately following the daily program, for 6 weeks.  They will be intimate and informal educational classes about nutrition, cooking, dining, and menu planning.  The classes are designed to pair up one child and one parent or caregiver to cook good food together, have fun and learn how to become healthier through what we eat.  Each family can sign up in advance for one class during the summer program.  The first of the Chefs R 4 Kids! Thursday-night classes begin on July 15. The topics covered by these classes will include:

· Buying good food on a budget

· Discovering, harvesting, and learning how to cook new vegetables from the Byrd House Farmlet

· Uncovering the hidden messages on packaged foods:  learning how to read and understand nutrition labels

· Preparing simple, delicious meals and planning weekly menus

· Learning words that encourage curiosity about taste, texture, and smells

· A little kitchen, table, and eating etiquette

WBCH After School program students will also be given an opportunity to cook our Community Garden and Byrd House Farmlet vegetables with a chef, learning the ins and outs of good and tasty nutrition.

Ellie Basch, of Savor restaurant, and Sally Schmidt, of Sallyfood, very recently established a Richmond Chapter of Women Chefs & Restaurateurs as a networking group of women working in food-related businesses  – chefs, culinary teachers and students, farmers, restaurant owners, and others in the food profession. On June 4, 2010, they were two of more than 500 chefs and restaurateurs from 37 states attending the “Let’s Move Chefs Move to Schools” event at the White House.  From the USDA website (http//:healthymeals.nal.usda.gov):  “The “Chefs Move to Schools” program, runs  through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will pair chefs with interested schools in their communities so together they can create healthy meals that meet the schools’ dietary guidelines and budgets, while teaching young people about nutrition and making balanced and healthy choices. With more than 31 million children participating in the National School Lunch Program and more than 11 million participating in the National School Breakfast Program, good nutrition at school is more important than ever.”

WBCH is currently collecting items that will supply the class with both materials and food supplies. If you would like to contribute any of these items please contact Patty Parks at librarian@wnch.org :

Plates, pots, pans, bowls, knives, cutting boards,knives, spatulas, pots, and other cooking utensils. We also need pantry supplies canned/dried items,cooking oil, flour, butter, beans, kosher salt, pepper, etc. to make the weekly dinners even more delicious.