Cooking, nutrition education, and food literacy can be incorporated into any discipline. Learning about and with food is FUN, and research suggests it can have many positive benefits, including academic achievement, increased willingness to try new foods, and greater engagement in school.
This site was created by the Baltimore City Public Schools Farm to School team with the goal of providing guidance for educators for grades K-12 who are looking to incorporate cooking and nutrition education into curricula.
With concerns or questions, please email the Farm to School team at farms@bcps.k12.md.us.
We recommend using the tabs on the top of this page to help plan and organize your classroom cooking activities.
Included in this site are many print-ready resources including posters for the classroom, lesson plans, and more. Such documents are highlighted as follows: *(PRINT READY RESOURCE)*
To help ensure that you are ready for conducting your classroom cooking session, we have provided a pre-session checklist to be completed prior to the classroom cooking event. Once the session has been completed, we have also provided a post-session checklist to ensure all of the final pieces to the session have been considered.
Cooking programs can take a variety of forms. See below for the ways teachers in Baltimore City Public Schools are introducing their students to food systems and cooking.
Photo credit: Ms. Palomares from Commodore John Rodgers Elementary Middle School.
Teachers of different disciplines and grades connect food education to their curricular units and cook in the classroom during regular academic sessions.
Robin Palomares at Commodore John Rodgers Elementary Middle School uses the "Healthy Eating" module in the 2nd grade Wit and Wisdom curriculum to teach heathy snack ideas that can be safely made at home by students. Featured here, students made cream cheese stuffed mini bell peppers with everything bagel seasoning.
Many schools have cooking clubs (during or after school) that focus on building healthy habits.
Rebecca Iacia at Graceland Park-O'Donnell Heights Elementary Middle School leads an after-school club that focuses on teaching students how to cook with limited kitchen materials: "I am amazed at how motivated my students are to learn new cooking skills. They are excited to try new recipes, new foods, and new techniques. Random students will stop me to ask if they can join cooking club because they have heard how much fun we have."
Photo credit: Food Studies Institute - https://foodstudies.org/
Did you know that a few schools in the district have full-time food educators who teach food literacy as a resource class?
Antonia Demas started the Food Studies Institute and worked with Principal Matt Hornbeck, Hampstead Hill Academy, to fund the program starting in 2003. Ariel Demas pioneered full-time food education in the district as a teacher there for 17 years. Principal Hornbeck describes that the program "teaches students about healthy foods from around the world and builds on what our students learn in science, math, social studies, language arts, music and art. This provides educational enrichment to our students as well as teaching them about food, nutrition, exercise, and cooking. Not only is this beneficial to our students but it is also valuable to our parents and teachers.”
To bring food education to their students during and after school, many schools work with partners, including Black Girls Cook, Great Kids Farm, TasteWise Kids, TheBe.org, and the BIT Center.
Want to share information about a relevant initiative or partnership at your school? Email farms@bcps.k12.md.us and/or share tips on the Live from BCPSS page.
Visit our School Garden toolkit for resources on gardening at city schools, from planting in the classroom to building raised beds outdoors
Our outdoor learning toolkit contains tips, best practices and resources for bringing students outdoors for learning
Learn about the free "Ag-Tivity" kits offered by the Farm to School team. These kits come with materials, instructions and lessons to engage with food and agriculture in the classroom: from growing herbs on a windowsill to hatching chicks.