Bon Appétit Management Company Takes Kids’ Nutrition and Culinary Education Program Nationwide
Hands-on cooking classes empower kids to make healthy food choices
PALO ALTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Cooking is a powerful teaching tool. It’s interactive, engaging, and of
course, deliciously rewarding. For decades, Bon Appétit Management
Company chefs around the nation on corporate and university campuses
have held cooking classes, showing adults everything from how to put
together a simple, healthy salad dressing to how to roll sushi or make
tamales. Last year, the company launched the Outdoor
Classroom for Kids in the Garden at AT&T Park in San Francisco.
Since then, more than 5,000 children from Boys and Girls Clubs, the
YMCA, and other Bay Area groups have been introduced to the vibrant
flavors and textures of garden-fresh produce in an interactive social
setting. Now, as of July 2016, Bon Appétit has begun taking a blend of
these two programs on the road.
Healthy
Kids in the Bon Appétit Kitchen, the new nutrition and culinary
education program, was created with the goal of empowering elementary
school–age children to make healthy food choices for themselves and
their communities. Pilot classes have been held at SAP, Adobe, and
several other Bon Appétit client locations in the Bay Area with dozens
more planned for the coming year.
“Seeing the program in action at AT&T Park just grabbed my heart,” said
Bon Appétit CEO Fedele Bauccio, who worked with the San Francisco Giants
to bring the Outdoor Classroom for Kids to life. “We’re really making a
difference. Extending this program to reach more children just fits into
what we’re trying to do as a company — to change our food system.”
Obesity now affects 1 in 6 children and adolescents in the United
States, according to the Centers
for Disease Control. Poor eating habits can have long-term effects
on the body, including greater risks of high blood pressure,
cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, breathing problems, joint
problems, and more.
Healthy Kids in the Bon Appétit Kitchen aims to address this. The four
Bon Appétit Fellows, recent college graduates who act as education
ambassadors for the company, and others will take a curriculum created
by Community Development Manager Hannah Schmunk (who launched the
original Garden at AT&T Park program), and fan out across the country to
corporate and university locations. Working with the on-site chef and
his or her culinary team, they will cohost a two-hour program for the
children of the host client’s employees or kids from local community
organizations (such as Boys and Girls Clubs). The hands-on lessons in
gardening, healthy eating, and cooking will include:
- Playing a fruit and vegetable name game
- Touching, tasting, and smelling garden-fresh vegetables
- Learning about edible plants
- Cooking tasty, kid-safe recipes
- Enjoying a healthy kitchen picnic
Through these simple activities, participants become more comfortable
trying new foods and can begin to shift their taste preferences toward
fruits and vegetables. They learn the importance of “eating a rainbow”
every day, and how easy it can be to transform whole fruits and
vegetables into a healthy meal. By learning about the connection between
what they eat and the ability to do what they enjoy, they go home with a
newfound power to make better choices for their health.
Watch a short video
of the Healthy Kids in the Bon Appétit Kitchen program.
About Bon Appétit Management Company
Bon
Appétit Management Company is an on-site restaurant company
operating 650-plus cafés in 32 states for corporations, universities,
museums, and specialty venues such as AT&T Park, as well as several
public restaurants including the famed Commissary in San Francisco. Bon
Appétit chefs cook from scratch, including sauces, stocks, and soups. A
pioneer in environmentally sound sourcing policies, Bon Appétit has
developed programs addressing local purchasing, the overuse of
antibiotics, sustainable seafood, the food and climate change
connection, humanely raised meat and eggs, and farmworker rights. It has
received numerous awards for its work, from organizations including the
International Association of Culinary Professionals, the James Beard
Foundation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Seafood Choices Alliance,
and The Humane Society of the United States.
Contacts
Bon Appétit Management Company
Bonnie Powell, 650-621-0871
bonnie.powell@bamco.com
