Signature Programs

Culinary Arts

Developing healthy eating habits begins in early childhood. At City Kids, children learn the magic power of food. It's exciting to discover that tomatoes help make your heart strong and kidney beans are not only shaped like kidneys, but they also help keep your kidneys healthy!

The City Kids meal plan is a unique in-house global vegetarian school food program. The goal is to introduce children to healthy, vegetarian foods from around the world. Each month, a weekly menu is prepared that balances foods that are familiar with foods that represent the culture of that month’s focus country. The global cuisine is often unfamiliar to students and challenges them to learn more about food and culture. The weekly menu is repeated within the month. Through this repeated introduction, the children tend to become comfortable with what was once unfamiliar. We have seen many children’s minds and palates expand through this approach.

We also incorporate learning opportunities in our meal preparation by asking kids questions like, “We only have 1/3 cup but we need 1 cup, how many 1/3 cups do we need to make 1 cup?” These conversations invite children to learn basic cooking skills and find pride in seasoning soups, making salads, and discovering their love for different foods and flavors.

Our Culinary Arts program is also tied to our Financial Literacy program – City Kids can serve as the Sous-Chef and Servers to earn money to be saved up and used at the School Store!

Meals are a very special time at City Kids. It's a time when our school community comes together and shows gratitude for the special people and events in our lives.

A note from Chef Carrie:

Cooking for the City Kids has been such a wonderful experience. I have thoroughly enjoyed researching and developing vegetarian recipes that complement the City Kids Global Destination studies. I’ve been surprised how willing the children have been to try new foods and how often the kids ask for repeats of dishes. Sometimes the dishes the children love most are dishes that would surprise a parent: Fiesta Lime Salad, Laksa: Malyasian Curry Soup, or Peruvian Pesto Pasta, to name a few.

For more information on our food philosophy, read about our Vegetarian Kitchen!