At the beginning of the summer, when I heard the Youth Ambassadors would get to help teach a Cooking Matters for Kids class, I immediately began counting down the days til June 24^th.  That would be the day I would take all this knowledge that working on the No Kid Hungry campaign has taught me and actually share it one-on-one with the kids who need it most in my community.  I rehearsed my role as a nutrition instructor, planned out all the questions I would ask them, and even wrote them all out in coordinating marker colors on giant sheets of poster paper.  I was so excited to play teacher for the day, and hoped that the kids would be as excited to learn about nutrition as I was to teach it.

As it turned out, they were probably more excited – as soon as they filed into the room at the Boys and Girls Club of Bryant, all 40 kids were ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the cooking station and eagerly raising their hands to tell me all about their favorite foods.   Immediately I learned that these kids, all 2^nd to 5^th graders, knew way more about nutrition than I had expected them to.  They immediately recognized the MyPlate diagram, and could name the five major food groups without peeking.  They told me that eating healthy would “make you strong,” and would “help your brain,” and I felt proud that these kids already knew so many benefits of eating food that’s good for you.

The meal we were cooking that day was a black bean and veggie quesadilla.  When I started talking about the ingredients we would use in our quesadillas, I asked if anyone liked zucchini.  When only two or three kids raised their hands, I was surprised – surely the quesadillas had looked tasty enough to entice more tummies than two or three.  But as the rest of the kids started to speak up, I realized that the problem wasn’t one of taste preference.  “We’ve never seen zucchini before,” they said.

That Cooking Matters class taught me that most kids aren’t clueless about nutrition; they’ve seen MyPlate in public schools, and probably learn lessons from their families about trying to eat healthy.  The tools for knowledge are there, but the problem is knowing how to use that knowledge in a productive way.  Seeing how few children had ever tried zucchini, and then seeing how much they enjoyed it when they finally ate their quesadillas, showed me that children – and adults, too – need more than graphs, statistics, and speeches to encourage them to eat healthy.  They need to try things and experiment with new foods themselves first, and then they’ll be able to use that experience at home.  That’s why I have so much faith in the Cooking Matters programs, because they give people the skills they need to transform their knowledge of nutrition into a healthier lifestyle.  I feel so lucky to be able to play a role in this class, and I can’t wait to share more tasty foods with the kids!