Pure Food Kids Foundation

Seattle chef, Kurt Beecher Dammeier, has long been concerned about the growing number of food additives in the food supply, as well as the misleading food packaging that was attracting his own children. To effect change, in 2006 he founded the Beecher’s Pure Food Kids Foundation. Our mission is to empower kids to make healthy food choices for life. We do this by providing free, learning standards aligned food education and cooking workshops to nearly 800 4th and 5th grade classrooms in the Seattle and New York City metro areas. In the workshops, kids learn life skills through label reading and cooking. They leave the workshop ready to make savvy food decisions for themselves and their families.

Long-term impact assessments show that this program works, with nearly a 50 percent increase in knowledge on the day of the workshop, and long-term impact surveys that show high levels of knowledge and skills retention as well as significant behavior changes with regard to food choices in students, teachers, and indirectly, with parents.

Studies show that consumers who read nutrition labels tend to make healthier food choices than those who do not read labels. Our goal is to inspire and empower people to change the way they eat by shifting the demand away from unhealthy diets that contribute to chronic disease. We also know that information alone is often not enough to create behavior change, and that the most effective, lasting changes involve self-efficacy and personal control over choices.  

By providing Pure Food Kids workshops to 4th and 5th grade classrooms in the greater Seattle area, our project will:

1) Empower thousands of students and their teachers to make healthy food and beverage choices through our nutrition knowledge, label reading, and cooking skills workshop;

2) Spark interest in youth in exploring new foods, cooking, and eating whole foods; and,

3) Reduce demand for highly processed, nutritionally deficient foods and beverages.

We provide our workshop free of charge to any 4th or 5th grade class that inquires. Our reach:

16,000 10-11 year olds

700 teachers

67 Title 1 schools

Med Household Income: $71,811.

White:70.1%

Black: 6.7%

Indian: 1.1%

Asian: 6.4%

Pacific: 0.8%

Latino: 10.2%

Other: 4.8%