Urban Survival Kitchen
“The Home Chef’s Training Course
for Putting Healthy Tasty Food on Our Table
During Difficult Economic Times”
Mission Statement:
Our goal is to teach teens and their parents how to navigate through the urban food landscape, as they learn to shop for and prepare inexpensive, clean, and nutrient-dense meals for themselves and their families.
Our middle-class is quickly disappearing and joining the ranks of the “working poor.” Food insecurity is on the rise. Our public schools are failing at providing a substantial meal at lunch. Some schools run out of food before every child is fed.
In a recent survey that I conducted at the Boys & Girls Club of Venice, I discovered that 70% were going without breakfast; 75% relied upon school lunch as their main meal of the day (which more often than not meant pizza or a bean & cheese burrito); 30 percent were going to bed hungry; and 50 % worried about the health of their parents and siblings.
Parents are overworked and stressed out. They don’t have the time, energy or resources to put healthy balanced meals on the table. Many of these families are eating fast food for dinner.
Health is the most important element of survival. If we want our children to thrive (not merely survive), we must develop new strategies for preparing our food.
Since the cost of animal protein foods is beyond reach for many of us, an emphasis will be placed on how to prepare affordable protein-rich meals.
Among the topics to be explored:
• How to bake protein rich breads using alternative grains.
• How to prepare protein rich pasta from scratch.
• Low energy cooking; how to keep your gas and electric costs down, conserve personal energy, and still prepare delicious meals, using such methods as crock pot and stir-fry.
• How to avoid hidden refine sugars and flour, reducing the risk for such health problems as obesity and Diabetes Mellitus Type 2.
• A virtual shopping trip for healthy ingredients.
• How to increase your Omega-3 consumption with plant-based foods that are inexpensive and easy to prepare.
• How to make your own snack bars, rich in nutrients and tasty!
• How to prepare low sugar desserts, guaranteed to please.
I believe that this course will provide a sense of empowerment for our students. I can envision the students becoming inspired to bring home their new-found knowledge, becoming the health-oriented chef in the family. There are many subtle benefits beyond just the healthy aspect of the food itself. This will help to boost self-esteem, relieve parents of some of the pressure associated creating healthy meals, and prepare the students for a lifetime of healthy dining. Furthermore, this will help to address the obesity epidemic that we are seeing, particularly in our food-insecure communities.
Please visit this link to view photos of projects already in progress:
