Navigating 2024-2025 Budget Challenges: Introducing Willow’s Subscription Plan for Schools

As schools across the country prepare their budgets for the upcoming academic year, a critical financial milestone looms on the horizon. The expiration date for the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) III funds are fast approaching. These funds, initially provided to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, have been crucial in maintaining…
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Planting the Seeds of Healthy Habits With Digital Communication Channels 

As parents and educators, we all want to encourage our children to develop healthy habits that span across their physical, emotional and social well-being. It’s no secret that digital channels play a large role in how young minds think and grow; but did you know it can also be an incredible tool for implementing positive…
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Success: the Purposeful Addiction

As we explore the tenth and final of our “10 Experiential Drivers of Behavior Change” you may ask: how can your Teaching Kitchen be set up for participants’ success? What does success mean at different age and stages of development? Sometimes we need to cross disciplines to fully understand the power of success to achieve…
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Come Together: How Aligning Systems Drives Impact

In NYC, Teen Battle Chefs create new school breakfast recipes, like these breakfast tacos. Integrated breakfast programs like these increase school breakfast participation, on-time attendance, and ensure children are fed and ready to learn.   As Teaching Kitchen practitioners look to scale up and significantly broaden impact, we look to tap into existing systems –…
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NYC Cornerstone Program

Teens + Police: Growing Trust One Spoon at a Time

There were a dozen teenagers in central Brooklyn wielding knives and fire in Tompkins NYCHA houses before officers of the NYPD were ushered in. But this time, the police were not there for law enforcement. Rather, they were invited by the youth themselves to judge and celebrate their Teen Battle Chef “Final Battle.” In recent…
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Skill Reinforcement: Driver of Behavior Change

Skill reinforcement is a driver of behavior change for healthy eating patterns.   I’m always a bit surprised at how much faith teaching kitchen program designers place on cooking demos. No question: Demos can be very inspiring. They provide concrete ideas. They teach radically different (and much healthier) meal concepts than what their audience (usually…
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What is a teaching kitchen

What Is a Teaching Kitchen?

Creating Helpful Definitions for Teaching Kitchen Initiatives We’ve been busily developing projects for a wide range of new and potential clients across the US. As we do so, it’s become clear that many Teaching Kitchen-related terms lack consistent definitions. Just this week, I was asked to explain the difference between cooking classes and a Teaching Kitchen! And…
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4 Ways FamilyCook Can Help You Overcome Funding Challenges

Funding is by far the #1 challenge our Teaching Kitchen (TK) colleagues face. Conducting effective programming in Teaching Kitchens is expensive because: it’s best when it’s hands on; cooking classes take time, and ideally involve multiple sessions; food is costly (we’re talking seasonal produce); and staffing is typically multidisciplinary. It’s also challenging to find a…
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Recipe Concepts

Recipe Concepts: A Driver of Behavior Change for Healthy Eating Patterns

This is the seventh article in a new series to illuminate key ‘drivers of behavior change’ around healthful eating. After 20 years of designing, evaluating and retooling curriculum to increase successful behavioral outcomes among all ages, we have identified 10 distinct behavior drivers. We are currently investigating these 10 drivers in a new study in…
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Palate Development: A Driver of Behavior Change for Healthy Eating Patterns

This is the sixth article in a new series to illuminate key ‘drivers of behavior change’ around healthful eating. After 20 years of designing, evaluating and retooling curriculum to increase successful behavioral outcomes among all ages, we have identified 10 distinct behavior drivers. We are currently investigating these 10 drivers in a new study in…
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