Photos by Katie Noble

About a dozen second- through fifth-graders sat in anticipation in a circle on the floor at Pierce Middle School in Newton, eagerly awaiting the arrival of a pair of chickens from Waltham Fields Community Farm. When the guests of honor came in tow with a farmer, the students passed around a freshly laid egg and got a crash course on chickens, from their wingspan to food preferences to their dominant senses of sight and hearing; then they fed and petted the hens.

The occasion was an installment of a multi-week after-school program offered through Lexington-based Kids Cooking Green that teaches kids the positive impact eating locally can have on the environment and their bodies, as well as the benefit of food as a social experience.

After the chickens left, the students switched gears and made “eggs in a basket”—a local egg fried in a hole made in a slice of bread, with a choice of local herbs. The class concluded with planning a nutritionally balanced meal featuring foods grown in New England at some time of the year—a menu that would be executed with the help of a local guest chef at an upcoming dinner for their family and friends.

“The simple process of getting good, local ingredients—it helps the environment and helps the body. And when you taste things that are grown well, there’s such a difference,” says Kids Cooking Green cofounder and owner Lori Deliso. “To give these kids the knowledge that these choices can make a difference in themselves and the environment is impactful.”

In 2006, Deliso founded Kids Cooking Green with Liza Connolly, whom she met volunteering for the Lexington Farmers Market, which Deliso also cofounded in 2004. Both had a background in food via culinary school and experience working in the restaurant and catering industries and had also separately spent a lot of time in Italy, where they cultivated an appreciation for local, simple ingredients and the value of slowing down to enjoy a meal together. They wanted to create a platform to bring their passion for good, local food and shared dining to kids.

After hosting classes at the Lexington Farmers Market, they launched a five-week pilot program for fifth-graders at Bridge Elementary School in Lexington. This became the model for the Kids Cooking Green Signature Program for second- through fifth-graders. In addition to Newton’s Pierce Middle School, the program is offered at Community Nursery School in Lexington and food rEvolution in Stoneham. Each class features a nutritional and environmental component, as well as a hands-on cooking lesson.

On the first day of the Newton class last fall, the kids examined a big bag of foods and identified their points of origin on a map. “We talked about how that mango or banana might have gotten from where it was grown to where we are, and the environmental impact of that,” Deliso says. “We want them to make the connection about what it means when food travels.”

In addition to the Signature Program, Kids Cooking Green offers a variety of one-day classes and workshops for kids of all ages, including toddlers and preschoolers. And through the Fund for City Schools and grants, the Kids Cooking Green programs have been made available to underserved communities at a reduced rate or at no cost.

The idea is to get these concepts to stick. “I hope they walk away with new enthusiasm for cooking and eating,” says Deliso. “I want them to understand a little bit about where food comes from to give them the knowledge to make choices.”

kidscookinggreen.com

This story appeared in the Winter 2020 issue.