THE LUNCHBOX | QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER | WINTER 2024
NUTRITION EDUCATION
The Nutrition Education team hit the ground running this fall!
One of our favorite groups to work with this fall has been the students in the public school system’s Adult Transition Programs. We had the pleasure of teaching students from both the Washougal and Hockinson school districts. We adapted the research-based Cooking Matters curriculum to allow everyone to fully participate in both the cooking and nutrition components of the class. The students loved the variety of recipes and discovered new foods that they had never eaten before (like mushrooms and lentils).
In addition to cooking, we also take the students on a tour of WinCo, showing them ways to buy healthy food on a budget. We all benefitted from working together with these delightful students and staff members each week.
The students pictured here are enjoying cooking one-skillet vegetarian lasagna, which was a huge success!
In total, the Nutrition Ed. team offered five 6-week Cooking Matters classes, one 6-week Student Nutrition and Cooking (SNAC) series, two 6-week Seed to Supper classes and ten individual workshops (both on-site and off-site). Needless to say, it’s been a busy – and fun! – few months.
The feedback we’ve received from our class participants keep us going with such a full schedule. One of the SNAC middle schoolers shared that she “actually liked some of the vegetables” that they used in cooking. A member of our Seed to Supper class noted that she “wouldn’t be back in the garden if not for this class.” The feedback isn’t just related to what participants have learned either. A member of a holiday cooking workshop commented at the end of class, “I’m leaving in such a better mood than when I got here!” Interactions like these with community members are what make our work meaningful.