With the new year, the nonprofit organization Kitchen Possible is expanding its free cooking classes for children in Austin neighborhood.
Kitchen Possible has been serving the communities of Garfield Park and Pilsen and this winter session Austin neighborhood joins.
Kitchen Possible was founded in 2018 by Katie Lowman and uses the cooking classes as a tool to teach children, ages 8 through 12, life lessons outside of the kitchen, like the power of teamwork or starting again after failing.
“I grew up cooking with my dad from about five years old, and it has always been a real personal passion hobby for me,” Lowman said. “I would consider myself an extremely avid home cook and an avid eater, who’s also really passionate about helping kids.”
Although Kitchen Possible does not have a permanent building, it collaborates with local community centers to host their winter and summer sessions. Each session consists of 20 children and around seven to nine volunteers, Lowman said.
Other focus areas of the cooking classes are broadening children’s world views and expanding their food palette.
Each class begins with children learning a recipe and then breaking into groups of two to three with their volunteer adult to recreate the recipe. Children get to eat their creations as well. After cooking, the class then comes back together and reflects on the lesson about what was successful, challenges they faced, and lessons learned.
“Cooking has a unique ability to transfer lessons to anyone, especially to kids,” said Lowman. “So many things happen every time you get into the kitchen. You learn about setting a plan when you follow a recipe, you learn about being flexible when you have to revise the recipe, you learn about asking for help when something goes wrong.
Teaching those lessons in a way that they want to pay attention to, and of course, the side benefit is they learn how to feed themselves.”
Lowman emphasized that it was important for her to use recipes that children could use daily with groceries available in regular grocery stores, as well as introducing them to new cultures and vegetables that they might not have liked before.
Every time when cooking a dish from a different culture, Kitchen Possible teaches children about the background of the dish.
Lowman said a lot of the times children walk out of the classes trying a vegetable they might not have liked before, like an eggplant, and loving it in the process of cooking.
The program is funded through grants and donations, and the expansion to Austin was made possible through a philanthropic $10,000 grant from TURF Design, a Chicago- based acoustic solutions manufacturing company.
“This grant has covered all of our supplies and ingredients necessary for the full session, including any startup cost required to move into that partnership,” Lowman said. “We are really excited about the opportunity to expand and to do it in partnership with a company that is so proud and excited about investing in the work that we’re doing.”
During cooking classes, children do use knives, and Lowman said that safety is a big focus in the class.
The students do not get to use knives until a third lesson, and when knives are brought up, they make sure to establish firm and clear rules around knife use, like not touching it without the volunteers’ supervision.
“I’m a really big believer that when we ask the kids in our class to bring their most mature and mindful selves to some of these more mature tasks, and we equip them with the lessons they need to be able to use them safely, they almost always step up to the plate and really show us that they can handle it,” Lowman said.
The winter sessions for all three communities will be from Jan. 20 through May 9, from 11 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.
However, Lowman emphasizes that the classes are not drop-in, but a full eight-week commitment for which parents need to register.
Although the winter session is already full, interested parents can register through the Kitchen Possible website and join a waitlist for winter and summer sessions.
“I’m really excited for us to expand the program into the Austin neighborhood,” Lowman said. “We’ve gotten such a quick response from families within that community who are really eager and excited to sign their kids up.” The Austin sessions will be held at BUILD, 5100 W. Harrison St.
