Cooking class teaches food nutrition through hands-on learning

A group of 10 young participants finished up a six-week cooking program Thursday by picking vegetables in the library garden, cutting them up and making hummus.

The Tuesday and Thursday cooking class, sponsored by the Faulkner County Urban Farm Project and Arkansas GardenCorps at the Faulkner County Library, featured hands-on meal preparation, tips on nutrition, food safety and budgeting to teach the 8 through 12 year olds how to plan and execute low-cost yet nutritious meals for themselves and their families.

Each participant committed to all six sessions.


Austin Yockey, a service member with the Arkansas GardenCorps, taught the Cooking Matters classes.

Yockey, who got involved with garden education and outreach locally through Urban Farm Project, said the kids have done great throughout the course.

“They’ve been adventurous and engaged in every recipe we’ve tried,” he said.

One of his favorite aspects of the experience, Yockey said, is the opportunity to show the children the connection between the garden and the recipes they’ve learned.

“I feel like the students definitely have a better grasp of basic cooking skills and feel more confident in doing things on their own, which should allow them to purse continued experiences in the kitchen,” he said.

In the future, Yockey said they may have students from the University of Central Arkansas lead some classes.

Crystall Geraldson said in early June she received an email that included information about the cooking class and quickly signed her daughter Javiana up because she knew it would be a good learning experience.

Now that it’s over, she said she can tell a difference in her daughter’s previous attitude toward healthy food and her current one.

“I think she’s more open to trying new vegetables and points out things in the produce section that she’s not familiar with,” Geraldson said. “Then, she will stand there and Google information about them and look for recipes that she can use with that particular item.”

She said it’s opened Javiana’s mind to the new possibilities and has “sparked a desire” to learn more about food.

“I’ve very excited that this has created a new interest in cooking and not only cooking, but how to cook with fresh produce,” Geraldson said. “She’s even considering creating some new recipes to enter into the fair.”

She said the class has been a wonderful opportunity to get kids involved in the meal-making process at an early age, laying a foundation for healthy eating.

After all the recipes they created, Javiana said her favorite was the egg and black bean burrito.

“It was really yummy, even though I typically don’t care for black beans,” she said.

Her favorite part of the course though, was being able to try new things and learn to cook with fresh vegetables.

“It was also interesting to tour the urban garden and see all that is being grown there,” Javiana said.

She said she was surprised by some of the things she learned during the course.

“I was amazed to learn that we have a new food group system now called ‘My Place’ and they have excluded fats and sugars as a main food group,” Javiana said. “I think they should have done that a long time ago.”