Cooking in the Classroom: Shaping eating habits at the right age

In late September, students from the Worcester Kindergarten Initiative (KI) delve into one of the most exciting parts of their farm to school program: cooking! As part of an activity about Johnny Appleseed, kindergartners prepare applesauce and apple chips in their classrooms using slow cookers and dehydrators. They carefully arrange sliced apples on the dehydrator trays, take turns using the apple corer, gently chop apples, and carefully add cinnamon and just enough sweetness to make delicious applesauce. Students are eager for a chance to participate in the process and even more excited to taste their creations at the end of the day.

Apple chips and applesauce are just the first of many cooking adventures for KI students. They will go on to make vegetable soup, cranberry sauce, kale chips, butter, and salads using all of the different parts of the plant. These activities are not only opportunities for fun in the classroom – they also provide both nutritional and academic benefits to kindergartners.

Between the ages of two and five children begin to develop strong food preferences and eating habits. It is during this period that they move away from eating solely in response to hunger and start to be shaped by external cues, growing to be influenced not only by positive role models, but by advertising, social media, and peer pressure. In addition, food preference has been demonstrated to be a primary predictor of fruit and vegetable consumption – that is, the more a child enjoys eating fruits and vegetables, the more likely it is that this child will meet all of her nutritional needs. And, when a child is frequently exposed to produce and repeatedly offered the chance to taste these foods, the chance is greater that this child will grow to like a certain food. Schools, therefore, have a wonderful opportunity to increase student fruit and vegetable consumption by reinforcing positive food habits through cooking activities and taste tests, both of which have been shown to improve produce preference.

Cooking also provides students with an academic experience that crosses many disciplines. Activities such as making applesauce allow students to work on math skills through counting and measuring, see science in action through observation and prediction of changing states of matter, and explore social studies by connecting recipes with stories and cultural histories. In addition, preparing food helps students learn to follow directions by completing recipes, and develop fine motor skills through stirring, chopping, tearing, and measuring ingredients.

Back in their classrooms, kindergartners across Worcester decide which dish they enjoyed more, the apple chips or applesauce. They dip into a quick math lesson, graphing their preferences using post-it notes, before heading home for the day. By building a connection with food, farm to school programs such as the Worcester Kindergarten Initiative can help remove the negativity that often grows around the idea of eating fruit and vegetables in the mind of a child. Cooking, planting fruits or vegetables in a school garden, and using tasting as a form of exploration are all paths of deepening connection, creating excitement, and encouraging healthy habits in both the classroom and the cafeteria.