Some people think that training programs for adults that teach basic shopping and food preparation skills are unnecessary, but it all depends on where you come from. Cooking Matters is a program that teaches people how to cook healthy meals on a budget.
For people who live in “food deserts” or rural areas that are far from a grocery store, they may not have had many opportunities to learn basic cooking skills. Cooking Matters is a resource that can be used to learn or improve cooking skills.
If you’re trying to work and raise children at the same time, it can be difficult to find time to learn new skills, especially if you didn’t learn them when you were younger. These types of Cooking Matters courses are also beneficial for child care professionals who are responsible for preparing meals for a number of kids on a regular basis. Each child has their own individual preferences and nutritional needs that need to be taken into account.
Cooking Matters is a food skills organization that has been teaching people how to cook since 1993. Many American families with low to moderate incomes rely on subsidized school breakfasts and lunches for their children. These families consider these meals to be essential. Many low income families need help in addition to the USDA program. Cooking Matters is a program that helps people learn how to cook healthy meals on a budget. The program is run by Share Our Strength, a nonprofit organization that also runs other programs to help people get access to healthy food, such as the No Kid Hungry and Taste of the Nation programs.
Cooking Matters provides resources, such as recipes and cooking tips, to low-income Americans. This program is especially helpful to those raising or caring for young children. The program also helps the elderly in the country who often have special dietary needs. The program provides them with the food they need to stay healthy and improve their quality of life. The Cooking Matters program also helps immigrants (documented or not) as well as those with poor English skills who may struggle to identify money saving tips or healthy ingredients.
Cooking Courses
One of the most popular things that Cooking Matters offers is their free hands-on cooking courses. These courses teach people the basics of nutrition and smart shopping, and how to prepare actual meals. Community resources are available for anyone to take advantage of and are offered in many local communities across the country.
Courses run for two hours. They happen once a week and last for six weeks. The class is led by a nutritional expert and a professional chef, and focuses on preparing a healthy meal for a family of four that costs no more than $10. Shopping includes buying the right ingredients, weekly budgeting, preparing the food correctly, and using the right kitchen tools. One of the practical skills taught is how to cut up a whole chicken so that none of it is wasted.
You can take these courses at community partner organizations or free food banks near you, such as housing centers and schools. Organizations such as Feeding America and community action agencies offer Cooking Matters courses to help teach people in local communities how to cook healthy meals on a budget. There are also different courses for different groups such as parents, single adults, children and care professionals. These courses help teach valuable skills to these groups.
Participants may also periodically receive ingredients and cookware to use at home to practice what they have learned. The kitchen supplies and items can be used for free.
Grocery Store Tours From Cooking Matters
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed while shopping for something at an unfamiliar store, it would have been helpful to have an expert tutor guide you through all of your options. The grocery store tour is designed to help people learn how to shop for healthy food on a budget.
The free tours offered by the store help low-income customers learn how to get the most nutrition for their money. This means looking at food labels to see which product is more nutritional value, looking at unit prices to see which product is cheaper, and using WIC vouchers to buy healthy food.
The cooking matters program will also teach low income families how to use coupons to save money on groceries or ingredients. This will include how to use physical coupons as well as smart phone applications. There is a tour specifically for WIC shoppers and another more general tour for low-income adults.
A tour guide will take you through the grocery store for 1.5 hours, informing you about how to make healthy choices on a budget. At the end of the tour, you will be given a $10 budget and challenged to put together a meal for four people. The couple went home with $10 worth of groceries, a recipe book, and a reusable grocery bag.
The Cooking Matters App
The Cooking Matters app provides recipes that are meant to be tasty, healthy and budget-friendly for ongoing support if you can’t make it to a class or have already taken one. The app also allows you to search for recipes using various criteria (such as food allergies or combinations of ingredients) and has a shopping list function that allows you to sort the list by store section to stay focused and move faster.
The app is free, but can only be downloaded onto an Android or an iOS device. There is also a lot of free information, recipes, and resources on the Cooking Matters’ website. There are a few different apps that can help you save money on groceries. Some of these apps include Ibotta, SavingStar, and Checkout 51. Each app offers different ways to save, so be sure to check them all out to see which one works best for you.
Educational References
The website offers a series of free illustrated PDFs that can be downloaded. This book provides valuable information for those who want to learn how to cook and those who want to explore new foods. It also offers helpful tips on how to give cooking demonstrations and how to work with food pantries. There are also a dozen color printouts for kids that teach about the flavors of different foods and healthy eating. There are other sources of free printable coupons besides this one. You can try looking for them online or in newspapers and magazines.
Other than cooking classes, Cooking Matters also provides other educational resources. The goal of their assistance programs is to help low income families save money and learn how to eat healthy on a budget.
Finding Cooking Matters
Cooking Matters provides cooking programs to various community partners across the country. A major partner of Feeding America food banks is a company near you. They should be able to enroll new clients. You can find lists of the organization’s members by state on the organization’s website. There are many organizations that can help you get food if you are in need. Some examples are Feeding America and the United Way.