Based off the research findings we recognized that there was a gap of knowledge around basic cooking skills and cooking ethnic meals. In order to address this the Sustainable Food Working Group (SFWG) helped us co-mentor 8 Community Service Learning (CSL) students in piloting two cooking classes and coming up with a format for how to run inclusive cooking education programming. The students helped us solidify a “community teaches community” that has made our programming more accessible. Through our pilots we began to understand thee capacity our programming had to build social support among participants, which became a key focus for us going forward.
As part of their volunteer hours the students created many helpful resources (which can be found in our resource page) including this booklet that provides support for those cooking on their own for the first time.