Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, in partnership with Vermont Public
SOUTH BURLINGTON — On Monday evenings at Common Roots in South Burlington, you might find a group of middle school students in the kitchen, cooking dinner.
Common Roots is a nonprofit focused on farming, food access and education. And for 16 years, they’ve offered a seasonal cooking class for teens and tweens called “Farm to Go.”
Youth gather at the historic Wheeler House once a week for six weeks to make dinner together, and then they take the meal home to share with their families.
On a recent Monday evening, the crew was making a kale stew. Eleven-year-old Milo Wainer was in charge of chopping onions.
“I’ve cried multiple times on the onions, but I haven’t stopped,” he said. “Other people kept taking breaks with the onions, but I haven’t. My eyes are watering, but I just keep going.”
Farm to Go is one of several youth education programs at Common Roots. The program is funded by grants and donations, and offered at no cost to participating families. It’s led, in part, by college student interns like Maya Krishnan. She’s a senior at the University of Vermont who studies food systems.
“The kids always leave happy,” Krishnan said about the program. “It’s an opportunity for them to be creative in the kitchen and to explore their inner chef.”
Farm to Go classes are offered three times a year. There are five students in this current group — four middle schoolers and a fifth grader — and they’re all boys.
“Traditionally, cooking is not as encouraged for boys,” Krishnan said. “But there’s a lot of boys that come to the Farm to Go classes. And I think that it’s great that they [can explore cooking] without stereotypes or being made fun of. And I think they’re really excited to take the food home to their families and show them what they made.”
Gabriel Krieg is another intern at Farm to Go. He is a senior psychology student at Champlain College. He said growing up, his family was active in the kitchen, so he learned how to cook at a young age.
“I think food is a lot about community, and knowing how to make it can help facilitate community,” he said.
The community aspect is important to Milo, too.
“Coming here, spending time with the community, seeing other people, getting out of the house instead of sitting inside the house… going here is way better,” he said.
Studies suggest hands-on cooking education programs like this one can be an effective way for kids to develop healthy eating habits.
“I think that when I was a kid, I learned somewhat about nutrition, but I never really understood much about how it affects your brain and your body and everything else,” Krishnan said.
She said at Farm to Go, kids learn what it means to cook nutritious meals.
“And they get an experience that most of their peers probably won’t be getting at school.”
Farm to Go isn’t the only no-cost cooking class for kids in Vermont. Green Mountain Farm-to-School in Newport recently launched a cooking program for middle schoolers. There, students prepare meals for seniors and community members facing food insecurity. So far, they’ve donated 550 prepared meals to three food access sites across the Northeast Kingdom.
Some students, like 14-year-old Jack Keaton, return to programs like these again and again. He’s been participating in Farm to Go for three years.
“I have all my friends here, and we’re having a fun time cooking,” he said. “And I like eating the final product.”
At the end of the evening, the Farm to Go students took home cheddar herb bread, potato kale stew, and an arugula and radish salad.
Next week, they’ll report back what their families thought of the meal.