Resource centre puts kids in the kitchen

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This article was published 29/07/2017 (2913 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A group of local kids are spending their summer months in the kitchen learning about nutrition, and about how they can cook and prepare healthy meals.

“I think what I’m learning will help keep me healthier and in better shape,” 11-year-old Jasmin Schmik said, while working on a recipe in the kitchen at the Steinbach Family Resource Centre on Wednesday.

Schmik is one of 17 local children between the ages of eight and 12-years-old enrolled in the Kids in the Kitchen Program at the Steinbach Family Resource Centre.

The centre offers the program on Wednesdays and Thursdays as a way to get boys and girls into the kitchen at a young age.

Mikayla Plett, who runs and teaches the program, believes it could have lifelong advantages for those who take part.

“Each session has a learning objective so they learn about kitchen safety, food safety, the Canada Food Guide, and today it’s learning about balanced meals,” Plett said. “And often they are going to leave here and take that home and it will become a lifelong knowledge, so it’s really important.

“It provides them with important knowledge and skills about something that is so important.”

Plett said the class is split up into a learning component and then a hands-on cooking component, but it always goes back to the goal of teaching kids about proper nutrition and balanced meals.

“They are definitely learning about proper nutrition, and we cook something every class so it’s hands-on learning,” Plett said.

For Schmik there has always been “a love of cooking and baking,” but she said the class gives her a chance to better understand what is going into the foods she cooks and eats.

She now wants to take those skills she is learning into her teen and adult years.

“This gives me good practice for now and for when I am older,” Schmik said. “I always want to be cooking and making my own meals.”