This past spring and fall, LIFT Enrichment’s team has been on the ground across New York City, visiting schools, meeting principals, and helping teachers bring the joy of healthy cooking to their classrooms.
With our recent expansion into New York, hundreds of students across the city are now learning essential cooking and nutrition skills through our hands-on afterschool programs. Our goal is simple: empower kids with life skills that build confidence, creativity, and healthy habits for life.
So far, 17 new chefs have joined our NYC team, teaching in schools from the Bronx to Queens. Here’s a look at some of the incredible partners making it happen.
If you’re curious, here are a few of the schools we’ve been helping so far:
Hale A. Woodruff P.S. 224
Hala A. Woodruff is known as “The Hive.” There, they don’t teach students but “scholars of the hive.” To them, every child is capable of greatness, and every classroom can be a “hive” of deep learning.
Their motto:
“Today I am soaring above and bee-yond expectations. Today I will “bee” safe, be respectful, be responsible, and “bee” the best I can be.”
Adding cooking to their enrichment program, 120 of their students are now going through cooking classes.
Academy of Applied Math & Tech MS343
If we had to sum up MS343’s educational philosophy in one word, it’d be:
“Experiences.”
As their website says, “We believe in a focus on exposure and experiences to prepare students to be productive and successful members of society.”
As such, the school’s given kids the opportunity to go backstage at Broadway shows, taught them photography with Canon, and hosts regular “career days” where adults, from TikTok stars to venture capitalists to forensic scientists, come in and teach students about their professions.
This year, they’ve added cooking classes to their list of experiences, helping 80 of their students to learn cooking and nutrition.
PS 18 John G Whittier
The mascot of John G. Whittier is the dolphin, so the school’s motto is appropriately, “Swim yourself towards excellence.”
They teach their students to S.W.I.M.:
Safety First
Work Co-operatively
I know I can
Make Good Choices
This year with LIFT Enrichment, they’re helping 60 students to make beneficial choices in the kitchen.
The Home for Little Wanderers
Here’s a fact for you:
Running for over 225 years, the Home for Little Wanderers is the oldest child welfare organization in history.
What do they do?
With a team of social workers, psychologists, mental health counselors, early childhood development therapists, family therapists, and mentors, they run 30 different programs to help young people all the way from birth to age 26. Often, these kids are the victims of trauma, and the common goal of all the Home’s programs is to give them stability and hope.
This year, they’ve started cooking classes, teaching 40 kids how to cook.
Queen’s Community House
Founded in 1975 to heal the wounds of a neighborhood conflict, Queen’s mission now is to strengthen neighborhoods by bringing people together.
Their work takes them to 40 sites across 15 neighborhoods and includes offering enrichment programs in schools. Working with LIFT Enrichment, they’re helping 160 of their students learn about healthy food and nutrition.
Elm Tree Elementary School
Elm Tree Elementary takes their mission seriously. Kristen McNiven, the principal, says,
“I strongly believe that doing what is best for children and their future is the promise one vows to keep upon joining this noble profession; thus, I hold myself accountable and my staff accountable for keeping that promise.”
This year, they’re helping 80 of their students build healthier futures with afterschool cooking classes.
Alexander MaComb
Located in the Bronx, Alexander MaComb’s motto is F.I.R.E.:
Family
Integrity
Respect
Education
As well as giving their students an incredible education with the values above, the school also has a “student government,” which participates in community projects throughout the year, helping the elderly and the homeless.
Working with LIFT Enrichment, they’ve put on an afterschool cooking program to empower 60 of their students to make good choices with food.
PS46 Edgar Allan Poe
Another school in the Bronx, PS46’s goal is to achieve excellence one student at a time, focusing on the individual needs of each student. As part of that, they go above and beyond the call of duty, running a “Saturday success academy” and “scholar test prep” on weekends to give students extra help.
This year, they’re putting on cooking classes for 60 students to help them make excellent nutrition decisions too.
Pioneer Academy
At Pioneer Academy, the goal is simple:
Empower and inspire their scholars to reach their full potential.
Of course, as we discuss every week in these newsletters, it’s really hard for kids to do so if they’re held back by poor diets. To that end, Pioneer Academy has started afterschool cooking classes for 120 of their students.
Across all our NYC partners this season, Lift Enrichment’s programs are reaching hundreds of students, from elementary to middle school, and giving them the tools to make better choices for their health and future.
We’re proud to see the momentum growing and grateful to all the educators who’ve welcomed us into their schools.
And if you want to do likewise, whether you’re in New York or California, and you wonder how an afterschool cooking program would work in your school, you can book a free call with one of our team by going to the link below:
Previous Newsletters:
How to make healthy food fun for kids, #1 food for a student’s brain? Chef Daniel, New York Schools Are Saying About Our Program, Why Good Food Equals Good Grades