With freshly washed hands held high, a class of fourth and fifth grade students at A.R. Lord Elementary School in Vancouver marches into the multipurpose room, heading into a one-week culinary adventure called Project CHEF.
Created by Chef Barb Finley, Project CHEF (Cook Healthy Edible Food) is a unique immersion program that marries curriculum with the acquisition of life skills in a fast-paced, informative environment.
The program aims to cover all bases, from following Canada’s Food Guide, to adhering to safety standards, using environmentally sensitive food practices, and cooking and sharing culturally diverse foods, all while working cooperatively with schools, peers, parents and volunteers. Colourful posters about BC foods decorate the walls to encourage the use of local ingredients.
For five days students attend the two–hour, action-packed class. The room is divided into six work stations and each station into five duty areas with students rotating to take on a different responsibility every day. Woven through the cooking and nutrition lessons are discussions about what they are learning. On the first day, Chef Finley and her sous chef assistants immediately engage the class in a discussion on safety, including the importance of cleaning hands, and the correct way of carrying, cleaning and cutting with a knife. Instructors also share the wisdom of “respect”: respect the equipment, the food, and each other.
Project CHEF was created as a fun yet viable hands-on program that would hook children’s interest in food while having an impact on their healthy eating choices. It targets fourth and fifth graders since studies have shown that children’s eating habits are usually developed by the age of 12. “If we are going to change what children eat, we have to show them how,” says Chef Finley. Her motto is “open mind, open mouth”.
Chef Finley created Project CHEF after years of teaching elementary school and initiating children’s cooking courses at private venues. After completing her culinary training at Dubrulle Culinary Arts School in 2000, Chef Finley worked with a variety of renowned Vancouver restaurants and chefs, including Diva at the Met and Pastry Chef Thomas Haas, combining her passion for teaching and cooking. When asked about her inspirations for Project CHEF, she immediately says “Without question it is Chef Alice Waters, founder of the Edible Schoolyard program in Berkeley, California, as well as Chef/Author Ann Cooper, also from Berkeley.” Although Chef Finley has never met either Chef in person, she did have the opportunity to visit the home of Edible Schoolyard at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School.
Working with children is definitely fun. Chef Finley laughs when she talks about her students applauding her as she demonstrated coring an apple with a Parisian scoop. “There is truly no other job where you get a standing ovation for using the scoop.” And then there was “Fred” the pastry scraper – another favourite tool of the students who got its name when one young student spontaneously christened it during a cooking class.
Project CHEF is funded by corporations, societies, foundations and private donors, as well as a small financial contribution from each participating school’s fundraising efforts. Chef Finley would like to see the project become a sustainable program and one that is also offered in other provinces. Donations for this program can be made to the Vancouver School Board and Vancouver Public Schools Foundation, a charitable organization that supports innovative educational programs in Vancouver schools.
“This is the best program we have ever seen in the school,” a participating teacher concurs. “It changes the students’ attitudes and behaviours towards food both at school and at home.” However, it is one fifth grade student who sums up the Project CHEF experience the best, “Everyone has the instinct to cook – you just have to awaken it!”
For more information, visit www.projectchef.ca
