Fifteen students from Sacred Heart School in Spencer recently learned some new life skills while having fun in an after-school program called Adventures with Kay, offered by the school’s food service director.
For the month of January, Kay Rose held classes on Thursdays for students in fourth to sixth grade to dabble in cooking and learn other skills.
“Generally, I had noticed that when a lot of children come through the food line they don’t always know what the foods are,” said Rose, who noted the school is trying to do more scratch cooking so some of the offerings are not ones the students are familiar with.
In addition, having grandchildren, Rose mentioned she is well aware of busy family schedules that don’t always include time for teaching children how to cook.
Several years ago, she had offered cooking classes to students and thought it might be good to do so once again.
Rose presented the idea to the school principal and parish pastor. Both were on board. She also gathered feedback from others such as members of the Catholic Daughters to find see if they had any ideas or would want to be involved in helping because the concept of intergenerational sharing can be powerful for the students.
“We decided to offer it one day a week after school during the month of January just to see how it would go and if there was any interest,” said Rose, who called this a bit of a pilot program to discern the level of interest, how the format worked and what they might offer in the future.
Kay Rose, left, helps students with finger knitting.
In the end, the food service director decided the lessons would include even more than just cooking, they would expand into some other life skills. For that reason, they went with the name Adventures with Kay rather than Cooking with Kay. The four-week series was offered at no charge.
For the first week, participants made bread in a bag and slime in a bag.
The second week, members of the CDA taught finger knitting, which was a big hit even for the boys in attendance.
The third week featured making cinnamon roll in a mug and banana oatmeal cookies.
The fourth and final week featured making cookies out of a cake mix and ice cream in a bag.
“One of the things we worked on was measuring. We had given each child a set of measuring cups and measuring spoons,” said Rose, who noted that Sacred Heart parishioner Pat Munday assisted her and was an excellent volunteer. “We worked the math into it with fractions – how many ¼ cups equals one cup and so on.”
Lessons also included how to follow a recipe as well as exploring some unique fruits and vegetables.
“It was really fun, even Father (Kevin) Richter came to a couple of the sessions,” she said, adding that the students loved to see their pastor in that environment.
She acknowledged there were a few students who commented during the first session that their parents forced them to attend.
After they had experienced the class, Rose said the students were saying they were happy to attend and even that they loved it. She is hopeful this will turn into a love of cooking for them that will last a lifetime.
More than likely this will not be the last of the Adventures with Kay. She is toying with the idea of offering some after school classes for second and third graders featuring simple concepts such as fruit dips or making pizza with English muffins.
“It’s a way to give kids a better view into the kitchen. They have gone home and showed their parents and siblings what they learned,” she said. “It’s been great fun for me. I received many comments from parents about how much they appreciated it.”