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Cooking for Life: Adult
The goal of Cooking for Life: Adult is to empower limited-resource parents to prepare healthy, affordable meals for their families by increasing their nutrition, budgeting, shopping, and cooking skills. With increased skills in low-cost meal preparation, family food dollars can be stretched further, decreasing the risk of hunger for children and other family members. Since the Cooking for Life program began in 1999, over 1,753 parents have participated in 166 series offered throughout Vermont.
Target Audience
Participants are low-income parents of young children and expecting mothers. The program is offered through organizations that work with the target population, such as local family centers; Head Start; the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); and Community Action Agencies. To find out more about hosting a Cooking for Life series, visit: Hosting a Cooking for Life Class.
Class Topics
Cooking for Life classes meet once a week for six weeks. During each 2 ½ hour session, participants work with a nutrition educator and a local chef through hands-on activities to acquire the knowledge, skills, and changes in behavior necessary to achieve adequate diets on limited budgets. The Cooking for Life curriculum was developed by dietitians at the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger and the University of Vermont’s Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program and is updated regularly based on feedback from participants and educators. Topics covered in the curriculum include:
- The Food Guide Pyramid
- Fats in the Diet
- Fruits and Vegetables
- Food Safety
- Meal Planning
- Grocery Shopping
- Child Feeding Issues
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Recipes made during class correspond to the nutrition topic for that week. Click here to view a complete class outline along with a list of weekly recipes.
“This class was phenomenal. It was a great eye-opener for me. I once thought that to eat healthy, all I could eat was rice and beans! Thank you so much .” — Cooking for Life graduate
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