Educating kids about nutrition and healthy eating is becoming the mantra of chefs around the country. Increasing numbers, many following in the steps of Alice Water with her Edible Schoolyard program, are participating in national initiatives, such as Michelle Obama’s Chefs Move to Schools and Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters, as well as regional and local efforts. Chefs are becoming visible, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable resources in their communities. For example:

Bobby Werhane, owner, Choptank, New York, NY, created “Taste the West Village” in 2009 with dozens of chefs from neighborhood restaurants. “The idea is to give back to the neighborhood where our restaurants are located, to create something ongoing, and to make a difference quickly,” explains Bobby. Besides tastes from the chefs’ restaurants, the event, which is held in the play yard of P.S. 41, a K-5 public school, features a “Living Classroom” with simple hands-on cooking lessons for children. The first year, the $5,000 raised was used for nutrition education at the school. This year, the $15,000 raised is helping fund the Greenroof Environmental Literacy Laboratory, a learning laboratory that incorporates lessons on nutrition, environmental literacy, math, and science. “There’s no question that teaching kids about nutrition and healthy eating is important,” says Bobby, “but parents need to be educated, too, to make sure there’s healthy food in the house.” To help, Bobby is creating a parent education program at the school to be led by neighborhood chefs. (tastethewestvillage.com)

Chefs for Kids is an initiative of A.C.F. Chefs Las Vegas. “Our goal is to eliminate malnutrition and hunger through education of students in “high needs” schools in Clark County,” explains Christopher Johns, chairman and exec. chef, South Point Hotel Casino Spa. He says the program funds educators from the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, who teach first and second graders about nutrition, about choosing foods that provide the greatest benefit to their bodies, and about the role that physical activity plays in a healthy lifestyle. Every month, the chefs, with the help of culinary students, prepare and serve a hot breakfast and provide snacks at one of the 12 schools, reinforcing the importance of eating a healthy breakfast. “Providing healthy breakfasts and snacks helps underscore our nutrition curriculum, and we know from teacher feedback that the program is making a difference.” (unlv.edu/depts/foodbeverage/chefsforkids)

Across the U.S., Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters (formerly Operation Frontline) teaches families about healthy, affordable food – through classes for kids, parents, and families. Volunteer chefs teach six two-hour hands-on classes about cooking skills and how to get the most nutrition out of a limited budget. “Share Our Strength makes it easy for chefs to participate,” explains Morris Salerno, chef, The Grotto, Highland Village, TX. “Volunteers, who are often part of AmeriCorps, arrange for locations and do the food shopping, and Cooking Matters provides the curriculum that we can improvise a bit. We teach kids about sanitation, how to handle a knife, clean vegetables and fruits, a nutritious diet, recipes for meals and snacks.” He says they show kids how to make cooking fun – creating skewers of vegetables, smoothies, etc. “The kids really look forward to the classes. Each one takes home a grocery bag filled with ingredients for the recipes to try for their families – it’s very empowering.” (cookingmatters.org)

Todd Gray, chef/owner, Equinox Restaurant, Washington, D.C., is part of the original group that helped Michelle Obama and White House chef, Sam Kass, develop the Chefs Move to Schools initiative. “When I ‘adopted’ Murch Elementary, it dawned on me that what comes so naturally to us as chefs is not so accessible to kids – many of them are not invited into a kitchen or a garden on a regular basis – food is something that is put in front of them, and they are told to eat it,” says Todd. “But they have a tremendous curiosity, and it is not hard to get them excited.” He met with parents and teachers to plot how they would work together. The teachers proposed a school garden and cooking in the classroom; food was woven into the curriculum, from earth sciences to math. “Once you get families and kids on board, they start demanding a change. Kids want better food – they’re starting to realize that they deserve better food – and we all need to guide them.” (letsmove.gov/chefs)