The Culinary Literacy Center’s (CLC) mission is twofold: to advance literacy through cooking and to provide an opportunity for community engagement and civic dialogue around all facets of food, nutrition, and culinary literacy. Our goal is to do this work in a way that inspires curiosity and fun among participants.

The CLC’s facilities include a commercial-grade kitchen and culinary classroom that seats 36 students. One of our major initiatives over the last school year was our elementary and middle-school program, Nourishing Literacy. During the 2014-2015 school year, we worked with schools across the city and hosted over 1,300 students.

Now entering its second year, the Nourishing Literacy program offers opportunities for students to make deeper connections between cooking, literacy, food, and nutrition. The Nourishing Literacy team has created curricula for kindergarten, third, and sixth grades featuring an assortment of math, science, social studies, and critical-thinking concepts, in addition to reading and writing. Our lessons weave Common Core standards through in-classroom activities and hands-on CLC-kitchen classes. Food educator Shayna Marmar of Honeypie Cooking works with the Culinary Literacy Center's librarian Suzanna Urminska to provide students with engaging, meaningful exposure to everything from food systems to storytelling. 

Each Nourishing Literacy unit includes three elements: a preview visit to your classroom, a field trip to the CLC for a hands-on lesson, and lesson plans for teachers including suggested book tie-ins. We hope to expand the program to reach even more students this school year, exposing a wide range of children to new tastes, tools, and ideas. 

We are now scheduling classes for the 2015-2016 school year. To find out more about how your class or your child's class can participate in this year’s Nourishing Literacy program, please fill out this form. We look forward to hearing from you!