Parent-Paid After-School Cooking Classes


Over a year and a half ago, LIFT Enrichment was teaching after-school cooking classes at more than 160 schools throughout Southern California.  Over 2,000 kids a week were being taught health literacy, life skills, and culinary fundamentals by a team of over 40 Chef Teachers.  While COVID put a temporary halt to that, LIFT Enrichment is BACK, and here are the details for how our parent-paid program works in 2022.

What is a parent paid program?

This type of program is for elementary or middle schools with the type of demographic in which families have the income to pay for an 8-week course for a cooking class at their childrens’ school.  Class sizes range based on enrollment, from 10-18 students in a 1-hour cooking class. 

Why Schools Should Partner with LIFT Enrichment for Cooking Classes

Here is what YOU and your students get by working with us
  • Experts at Culinary Lessons for Kids
    -  While other enrichment programs offer a variety of programs, we excel at just one thing: cooking classes for kids taught at schools.  With over 160+ school partners and 12 years of experience teaching over 20,000 kids how to cook, no other program brings this much expertise to the culinary classroom.  We’re not the cheapest option, but we’re definitely the best.
  • Highly Trained Chef Teachers
    -  Our Chefs go through an extensive training program to prepare them to incorporate in each lesson: culinary skills, kitchen safety, class management with large groups of students and making the whole experience FUN and engaging.
  • Health Literacy
    -  Our curriculum is designed to explore nutrition, science, math and teach students about key nutrients like protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins and more.
  • Delicious Food
    -  Each 1-hour class ends with students enjoying the flavorful food that they helped make.
  • Safety
    -  We make sure our Chefs are back-ground checked, vaccinated when required, and are able to teach with the standard within the protocols within your school and district.  Also we make sure food is transported and cooked safely, as well as that students are safe when we bring in knives and cooking equipment.
  • Life Skills
    -  Learning to cook helps students develop a skill they will use everyday for the rest of their lives with their family and friends.  Healthy eating also helps fight the childhood obesity, which is a serious issue the US faces.

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“(My daughter’s) a picky eater and she tried the classes and ate everything we made!  We called her the ‘chef of the night.’  She loved the lasagna and ramen soup, she loved everything, even the lettuce wraps!"

Mayra, Mom

“

“Your Chef did a great job of engaging kids and teaching them safety as they went along with the lesson.  (My daughter) Maggie took a liking to her and is asking to do more lesson!”

Jill, Mom

How The Program Works

Our Guarantee:  Your child will cook ONE dish at home that he or she learns from our 8 week series!

This Type of Programming Is Ideal For Schools Such as:

  • Private schools with parents that can afford after-school programs (otherwise we Healthy Culinary Workshops using grant-based programming and after-school budgets here)
  • Have a student body of at least 80 students
  • Charter or Public schools with middle class and above families
  • Pre-school (for ages 4 and up, with a slightly shorter class experience of 40 minutes)
  • Schools must be based in California or Arizona (at least for now!)

Leah / 

Mom

“Amazing energy!  The Chef made the kids feel confident and encouraged having fun.  It was a great example of how cooking doesn’t have to be rigid, and instead you can be flexible and creative with the ingredients.  I loved all of the additional information regarding food, ingredients and health.”

Sandy/

mom

“My kids have been having fun making and tasting food recipes from around the world.  They are trying new foods and actually liking them!  They are proud of what they make and can’t wait to share it with us."

How We Make Sure Chopping Is Done Safely

  • Kids use metal dinner knives to cut pre-chopped vegetables like zucchini or bell peppers into small pieces.  See this video
  • Only the Chef Teacher uses the 8” Chef Knife
  • Once cutting is complete, knives are removed immediately.

How We Make Sure Cooking Is Safe

  • Students wash their hands at the beginning of each class and throughout as needed.
  • The electric skillet has no flame and kills 99% of bacteria.
  • Chef Teachers arrange the classroom so it’s safe for kids to help stir and add ingredients.
  • Each child gets their own individual sample of the dish on their paper plate.
  • Chefs wear gloves the entire class experience, and they can wear a mask as well if necessary.

5 Key Parts That Go Into Each Lesson

  • Grocery shopping
    Chef Teachers grocery shop for fresh ingredients for each class a few days in advance.
  • At-Home Prep
    Fresh produce is washed, cleaned and bagged. Some food is pre-cooked depending on the recipe.  Some foods are chopped, peeled or grated.
  • On-Site Prep
    A Chef Teacher arrives 20 minutes before class starts to unpack culinary equipment (it’s a lot of stuff!) and setup the classroom according to our guidelines.  Any classroom, science lab or cafeteria will work.
  • 1-Hour Class Experience
    Each lesson includes the 5 rules of the culinary classroom, explanation of the recipe, chopping, cooking, seasoning and (of course) eating!
  • Cleanup
    Chefs go through a 5-point inspection (tables, chairs, trash, sink and countertops) to ensure your classroom looks and feels like a room where no cooking took place!  (except for maybe a delicious smell in the air)
    • As you can see, each 1-hour class is 2.5-3 hours of work behind the scenes!
Ready to bring a cooking class to your school?  (Click here and fill out this form!) 

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What if my child doesn’t like the experience?

Do you make any substitutions for students with food allergies?

How To Get Started:

1

Go here and click the “contact us” form so a representative from LIFT Enrichment will reach out in the next 1-2 business days

2

After that meeting, and if it’s a good partner for both the school and LIFT Enrichment, we will plan the upcoming session

3

LIFT enrichment helps with advertising with a digital flyers and we can get enrollment going!

4

Kids signup and experience the amazing cooking classes!

5

Rebook more sessions with new recipes and curriculum.
Ready to bring a cooking class to your school?  (Click here and fill out this form!)