Culinary Instructor

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We are looking for volunteers with a culinary background who can share their skills!

About:
Nutrition Works, a sponsor of the USDA Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), is offering a new and free training opportunity for child care professionals in Boise. As a partner of Share Our Strength, we are offering their Cooking Matters for Child Care Professionals curriculum. This course teaches both home and center-based child care professionals about healthy meal preparation and creating a positive food environment for the children in their care. This hands-on, discussion-based training covers topics such as choosing healthy foods that appeal to children, encouraging positive mealtime attitudes, safe cooking with confidence, and menu management on a budget--all meant to provide participants with skills that can improve the health of the children in their care.

Responsibilities:
The culinary instructor serves as a teacher and role model (along with a nutrition instructor), teaching key skills and inspiring participants to cook more healthy, inexpensive meals.

• Teach child care providers the basics of food and kitchen safety, recipe modification, food preparation, and cooking healthy meals for children according to the highlighted objectives of each lesson from the Cooking Matters curriculum.
• Facilitate class discussions. The classes are hands-on and discussion based--encouraging involvement by the child care providers.
• Assign participants kitchen tasks that allow each individual to gain hands-on practice and improve their cooking skills.
• Supervise participants in the kitchen, encouraging proper technique and gently correcting as needed.

Time Commitment:

• The day-long class lasts 8 hours and will be offered a total of 4 Saturdays. We are seeking volunteers to commit to one day, however if you'd like to volunteer for more than one training class, that would be wonderful!
• Saturday, April 7th
• Saturday, May 5th
• Saturday, June 9th
• Saturday, June 23rd
• Volunteers spend travel time to and from class each week and must arrive at least one half hour before the class is scheduled to begin to help set-up. Volunteers also assist after class with clean-up.
• At least 2-4 hours for training and orientation to Cooking Matters. (Mix of in-person and online training.)
• Independently review and prepare provided course lesson plans.

Desired Qualifications & Skills:

• Professional culinary training or experience working in the food industry.
• Comfortable teaching and speaking in front of a group of 30 child care providers.
• Patience and flexibility.
• Willingness to be trained on Cooking Matters curricula, to work as a team with nutrition educator and class assistant, and to adhere to program policies.
• Familiarity and/or experience with child care and provider needs is a bonus!