The Cooking Room is an elementary school program whose goal is to promote food literacy to kindergarten through 5th grade students.

The Cooking Room operates through dedicated kitchen classrooms where teachers, professional chefs, and chef-instructors educate kids in grade-appropriate food-related lessons that incorporate science, math, reading, and nutrition.

Through classes in The Cooking Room, children learn about food, cooking and taste, while bolstering academic core-standards through the practical application of those skills in a fun, stand-alone kitchen classroom.

The Cooking Room is run entirely by volunteers, there is no overhead. Here is where your money goes:

INGREDIENTS
$30 pays for one child to follow the program
$900 pays for one whole class to follow the program

EQUIPMENT
$700 pays for one refrigerator
$90 pays for 70 ramekins
$25 pays for a month's worth of cleaning supplies

“Over the past three decades, childhood obesity rates in America have tripled, and today, nearly one in three children in America are overweight or obese. To help combat this epidemic, the First Lady launched Let’s Move! in February 2010. Let’s Move! Centers on one ambitious goal: to solve the problem of childhood obesity within a generation, so that kids born today have a bright and healthy adulthood.” Source: www.letsmove.gov

We at The Cooking Room believe an essential element to fight childhood obesity (and obesity at any age) is knowledge. When children become familiar with real food, fresh food, healthy food (not processed, 'food'-type substances), and learn what properties those real foods contain, and how they help their bodies, they will get better at making good food choices at school, at home, anywhere.