...Cooks in the Classroom! Part 3: Baker's Edition

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

Just as we would hope our students would go "over the top" with their science fair projects and historical re-enactments, I want my cooking club students to be able to "wow" their audiences with their culinary delights. Thus, they need a variety of specialized baking supplies.

I teach math at a high school where most of the students come from the local, under-served communities.

We hold them to high expectations, and their collective determination to be successful is largely why I'm proud to teach here. What they may lack at times in foundational skills is more than made up for in their inquisitiveness and willingness to learn. And that eagerness to learn is especially keen when dealing with topics outside the normal curriculum. In recent years I've visited the Health class as a "guest lecturer" during their unit on diet and nutrition. I talk to students about my vegan diet, answering questions and sharing photos of meals I've cooked. One class period is never enough though--they always want to know more! And there are always several students who want to DO more - a few kids inevitably ask if I would sponsor a cooking/baking club. The problem, I always tell them, is that we don't have the resources at our small charter school to do any cooking or baking.

My Project

But that could change with help from you and ABC Family! Thanks to ABC Family and individual donors like you, I've already secured some resources with which we can get our club started, but it's not enough to fulfill my students' potential! This set of materials I'm requesting focuses on baking: a hand mixer to whip up cake batters and cookie doughs; a revolving stand and icing bags and tips to decorate freshly baked cakes (coming from a variety of cake pan shapes); loaf and pie pans to create sweet breads and pies. Oh, and to model a balanced, healthy diet, each cookie sheet of chocolate chip delights that comes out of the oven will be matched by a jelly roll pan of roasted vegetables - I promise! Our students really like to organize potlucks in their advisory groups and recognize each others' birthdays. Instead of them bringing in the highly processed store-bought sweets they currently do, it'd be awesome if they were able to share their own school-made baked goods with each other.

The benefits of this club are many: it can be a source for fundraising for other school/student body needs; it teaches legitimate, real-world life skills; it gives a space for non-athletes to shine; and, of course, cooking and food help build community.

There's an old baker's proverb: "Give a boy a cupcake and he's happy for 2 minutes. Teach a boy how to bake one and top it with a buttercream frosting made from scratch and he's making friends and family happy for life." Help make it happen!