Our Culinary Apprenticeship Program participants got up-close and personal with the food they shop for at the grocery store when they went on the Cooking Matters at the Store tour. The tour, part of the Cooking Matters curriculum—which is developed by Share Our Strength—is taught by the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle Community Health Education program, and is geared toward teaching adults how to eat healthy on a budget. Participants go section by section in the store to show what’s the healthiest choice in foods available and how to fit those choices into a tight budget. The Cooking Matters at the Store tour took place at the Food Lion store located at 2720 Lake Wheeler Road. Food Lion has a long-running association with the Food Shuttle and this program. Not only do they provide space to hold these workshops, but they provide $10 Food Lion gift cards for each of the participants who take the tour as part of the Cooking Matters curriculum.
Elisabetta Ballaben, dietetic intern with the Community Health Education program, directed the tour and offered guidance to the apprentices on everything from the money-saving benefits of purchasing produce that’s in season, to the finer points of reading nutrition labels, to the necessity of watching out for fat and sugar content when purchasing dairy products. There is a lot of focus on reading ingredients lists and the benefits of purchasing larger sized products (as opposed to multiple smaller ones) and store brands, when possible.
At the end of the tour, the Culinary Apprenticeship Program participants were challenged to use the knowledge they were given on the tour to shop for a high-nutrition, low-cost meal for a family of four. The goal was for each participant to purchase one item from each area of the store they had visited and to not exceed their $10 limit per person. Ballaben and Community Health Education Programs Manager Jasmine Henry were available for questions and suggestions to help the participants meet their goals. In the end, all of the participants met their $10 goal, and most came in under the amount.
The Cooking Matters at the Store tour was just one part of the Culinary Apprenticeship Program. The Program is a 12-week course of study that prepares participants for a career in the culinary realm, teaching everything from food safety in the kitchen and cooking training to soft skills such a resume preparation and job interviewing skills. For more information on the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle Culinary Apprenticeship Program, contact Andrea Breazeale-King at andrea@foodshuttle.org.
For more information on Cooking Matters and the Community Health Education program, contact Jasmine Henry at jasmine@foodshuttle.org.