Food First Culinary Experience

The Cause

The Food First culinary experience is a 12-week community kitchen program that teaches families the skills needed to prepare healthy, nutritious meals and snacks. It also addresses poverty with innovation and long-term solutions. This program offers the following community supports and instruction
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ATB Financial teaches financial literacy
LEARN teaches literacy skills, mental health and parenting support
Community Food Connections teaches canning and gardening
Sedona North Takes our participants on a grocery store tour with a dietitian
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We teach basic culinary schools and also provide participants with kitchen tools to be successful including a croc pot and deepfreeze.
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We work directly with families to address long term food sustainability in their lives by connecting them to community supports. We have a very high success rate in this program, the large investment we put into each individual gives us the ability to lift them out of food insecurity therefore no longer requiring access to our Emergency Food Pantry. Our "hand up not hand out" approach has proven to take people out of the system by building community which gives our families the opportunity to become self sufficient and successful long-term,.

Who Will it Benefit?

This program benefits families in our community. It gives parents an opportunity to learn valuable skills, receive tools to maintain success long-term and a deep rooted connection of community supports. We believe that by putting families through this program that we are changing the next generation and that supporting parents with the ability to pass this valuable information will change the outcomes for multiple generations.