HKansas City area high school students are doing their part to end food insecurity one recipe at a time, Tamara Weber said.
children feeding children — A sister program to Pete’s Garden, both founded by Weber — Taught in partnership with high school FACS and CTE culinary classes Introduce students to important topics related to food access and sustainability. The program aims to empower young people to give back to their communities by preparing up to 1,000 free grab-and-go family dinners.
“My idea was that I could not only prepare the meals, but also provide the curriculum to the students,” Weber explained. “This means they will learn about the environmental impact of food waste, and they will also learn about sustainable food systems and the root causes of food insecurity.”
“This program provides lifelong lessons, including understanding and empathy for those facing food insecurity and the impact of food waste and sustainability.” “A recognition of the importance of food systems; an appreciation for the connections that come from sharing a meal; and a recognition that happiness often comes from helping others.”
Weber is passionate about reducing food waste, combating food insecurity, and restoring mealtime to families. In 2019 she founded peat garden — A nonprofit that partners with caterers, restaurants, and food service organizations to conserve prepared food that goes unserved and wasted. The meals are then packaged into simple, ready-to-eat meals that are delivered to social service organizations and distributed to families in need three days a week.
Related: How one social venture saves families mealtime by eliminating waste
When the pandemic hit in 2020, many of Pete’s Garden’s food providers closed, Webber explained. She looked for places that, if she could provide the ingredients, would be willing to make meals for the families she was feeding.proposed by board members Broadmoor BistroA restaurant run by Shawnee Mission School District students.
The Bistro is back on track and the Kids Feeding Kids program is… 15 and Mahomies Foundation Pilot — Weber organized a debut event in December 2021. The students made 250 pot pies for him, the equivalent of 1,000 servings.
“They enjoyed the experience,” she recalled. “It was an opportunity for the kids to do a community service project and cook for the community.”
Shortly thereafter, other school districts expressed interest, and the program took off, she said.
Diane Mora, Children Feeding Children.Photo courtesy of Johnson County Community College
Tamara Weber, Pete’s Garden
But once the food recovery program got back on track at Pete’s Garden, Weber realized they needed help feeding the children. She has hired Diane Mora, who has the perfect background, to run the program and develop the 2022 curriculum, she noted.
“She was actually Teacher of the Year for the Kansas City, Missouri School District in 2019,” Weber added. “But she also has a background as a professional chef.”
Since that first event, more than 400 students from more than a dozen Kansas City-area high schools have eaten food from area families, from homemade chicken pot pie to jambalaya to chicken fries, according to the Kids Feeding Kids site. He has planned and prepared over 7,000 meals for the event. Rice.
Weber noted that once the meals are prepared, the district can decide how to distribute the food. Some people use their own free or reduced-price lunch programs, while others use them through social service agencies. In some locations, Pete’s Garden will distribute meals to partner organizations such as Operation Breakthrough and YMCA Head Start.
Liberty North High School students participate in recipe contest through Kids Feeding Kids
Bean, I did it
Weber and Mora have been developing standard recipes for students to make using the ingredients provided, but Weber said they have recently been letting students participate in recipe development.
Liberty North High School students are experimenting with plant-based, protein-based recipes. On May 2nd, each team competed in a recipe contest, and the winning recipe earned the right to be featured in the Kids Feeding Kids cookbook for the next school year.
“We really wanted to build on the idea of how food impacts sustainability,” Weber explained. “Plant-based proteins are not only more environmentally sustainable proteins, they are also usually cheaper and healthier.”
In addition to using plant-based proteins, students were also judged on whether their recipes were family-friendly and whether they were below a cost target of $2.50 per serving. Judges included executive chefs from Lydia’s, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Current organization.
The students used donated dried beans. 21st century beansa farmer-owned business in western Kansas.
“When most people think of beef, they think of western Kansas, but beef is having a negative impact on the environment,” Weber said. “But another very important source of protein comes from western Kansas.”
Students had a bit of an adjustment period in the early stages of the competition, she continued, as canned beans are now used more frequently.
“Using dried beans requires a little more preparation, preparation, and planning,” she explained. “So I think it was a good learning experience for the kids. In almost all of the recipes with chickpeas, the kids realized that they needed to soak or cook the chickpeas longer.” It wasn’t raw, but it was a little hard.”
Weber said the students prepared recipes for at least 50 meals, so by the end of the day, about 500 meals were available for distribution to community partners.
“My hope is that the families who receive our Kids Feeding Kids meals will become interested in plant-based proteins, especially if our students come up with recipes that kids will enjoy. ” she added.
Scale up large batches
Kids Feeding Kids recently received a large grant from the Overland Park-based government. Well Sky Foundation, Weber shared, will allow the program to scale up. For the first time this summer, she and Maura are planning a professional development program for teachers across Missouri and Kansas. The three-day program allows teachers to work on the curriculum and familiarize themselves with preparing large batches.
“So far, in every program we’ve done, Diane has been in the classroom with the teacher and helped run the program,” she explained. “But if you want to scale, obviously you can’t keep doing that.”
“If we can show that teachers can do this on their own, we’re excited to be able to actually implement feeding activities for children across the metro and even outside of Kansas City. The result is a ready-to-use, real-world learning program that any consumer science teacher can implement.”
