MCA's Community Health Program Holds Weekly Junior Chef Program

The Mohawk Council Community Health Program has been holding a Junior chef cooking program for preteens within the community for the last few weeks. This five week program was set up to help give preteens a way to cook healthy meals and give them tools to do so safely and effectively. Each class had a different educational focus, such as learning measurements, chopping up ingredients, and learning to distinguish different cooking utensils, all while they learned how to create different nutritional snacks, meals, and desserts. There was also a safety discussion on how to properly use knives and the oven to avoid any possible accidents. Some of the different foods they made were fruity crepes, pita bread pizzas, butterfly quesadillas, "Mac and Squeese", and hungry kids sundaes. Each well-known favorite meal had a twist to it that made it more nutritional and health benefiting. At the end, they each got to put together their own snack and eat them. By learning these tools at a young age, the preteens can continue to expand their knowledge and practice cooking and perhaps prepare them for a future working as a chef in their own kitchen.