Keiki Kitchen Kauai

Our Motto:  Grow, Cook, Eat, Enjoy

Our Purpose:  Teaching the youth of Hawaii how to grow, cook, eat and enjoy sustainable foods grown on our islands through education.

Why should we teach kids about cooking?

Fight against obesity!  In the US and Europe, obesity among children has become problematic, even being called an obesity epidemic by some. Teaching children to cook encompasses such vital information as nutritional content, food preparation, and calorie information.

As more and more emphasis is placed these days on eating whole foods and having meals at home, some people may be eager to embrace this home-cooking lifestyle, but aren’t sure where to begin. After decades of eating gourmet food out at restaurants and heating up frozen dinners at home, many families just don’t know how to cook. Or their knowledge of cooking may be flawed – perhaps they think that cooking means hours of elaborate preparation and expensive grocery shopping trips.

Teaching our children to cook helps prepare them for the future. Giving them these skills may help prevent them from getting stuck when necessity or principles call them to cook their own food.
Here are some other reasons why it’s a good idea to teach your children to cook.

Do the math…it’s nearly impossible to cook without doing some math. Whether you’re cutting a whole recipe in half or just measuring out cups of flour, it’s a great way to give your kids a jump-start on math skills. Cooking may help children see that math has a practical application in the real world – perhaps they’ll see that it’s not as abstract as they think!

Our Vision:  provide free education to the youth of Kauai through after school programs that bring kids into the kitchen to learn basic cooking skills and learn to cook and enjoy sustainable foods.  The concept is similar to a home economics class with an emphasis on using healthy, sustainable foods and at least 50% locally sourced ingredients while providing education on the foods we eat.  After school programs are designed for elementary students, grades 2-5, junior high and high school students.  Class will be one hour in length, one class per week for each age group at two different locations; a total of 6 classes per week.  Each week a local chef from Kauai will be brought in to help teach students different recipes.  Space to hold after school classes will be donated from Koloa and Kalaheo schools.