Who's involved?
Elly’s demos will target elementary and middle schools. “With middle school students, sometimes they are at the age when they’re at home without a parent or taking care of their sibling, and we want them to have a firm understanding of how to make snacks or a simple meal for their family,” Saidel says. “At upper elementary, you’re getting acquainted with healthy foods and ingredients, and [students are] at their most impressionable. Even at lower elementary, you can do more of an assembly-type recipe, and they’re the ones who are going to be excited to tell their parents that they worked with that food.”
In fall 2016, Chartwells K12 partnered with Pilot Light—a chef-driven nonprofit dedicated to helping kids make healthier choices—to bring educational programs that combine Common Core curriculum with food education into its school classrooms. The mobile teaching kitchen, which travels on a trailer, will expand on this partnership by pairing classroom lessons with lunch recipes that will be taught in hands-on demonstrations, says Joyce Sun, teaching kitchen manager for Chartwells K12.