Interested in helping students in your school community develop food skills? Southwestern Public Health, in collaboration with Middlesex London Health Unit, now offers Let’s Get Cookin’, a “train the trainer” school-based food skills program for children and youth.
Southwestern Public Health provides training for school volunteers and staff on how to teach basic cooking skills in schools (grades 5 and up) through an online E-Learning Module. Once trained, you can then offer the Let’s Get Cookin’ program in your school community. This program was formerly known as You're the Chef in Oxford, Elgin and St. Thomas.
E-Learning Module
Click on the image below to download the E-Learning training.
Facilitators' Portal Sign In
Once you're trained as a Let's Get Cookin' facilitator, you'll receive access to all material and recipes to support the program. Access the trained facilitators' portal by signing in with your username and password.
About Let's Get Cookin' Facilitator Training:
Adapted with permission from Middlesex-London Health Unit
Southwestern Public Health is piloting the exclusive use of the E-Learning Module to train program facilitators for the Let’s Get Cookin’ program. The module will take approximately 30-45 minutes to complete. It is formatted as a power point presentation with voice recordings, allowing flexibility when completing.
The last slide of the E-Learning Training Module will prompt participants to complete a short quiz to test their knowledge about the program. Following the completion of the quiz, participants will receive an email detailing how to access the Facilitator Portal which stores information and resources required to offer the program.
In the E-Learning Module, volunteers will learn about:
- Program design and facilitation
- Basic food safety and knife skills
What will I do once I’m trained as a facilitator?
- Purchase or obtain equipment to run the program
- Recruit or decide how participants will be selected to participate in the program (if in a school in consultation with principal and/or other staff)
- Ensure consents have been sent home and are returned prior to starting program (store according to school policy).
- Purchase the approved sanitizer and understand how to safely use it to sanitize the room, equipment and dishes (in schools speak with custodian and/or principal)
- Buy groceries for each session as listed in the session shopping list
- Review the session materials provided to plan sessions
- Prior to each cooking session clean and sanitize the room where cooking will occur and clean and sanitize the room and dishes and equipment following each session
- Set up the room for the sessions
- Facilitate the orientation session and subsequent cooking sessions
How do I register to become a trained facilitator?
- Before completing the E-Learning Module, we ask that you have permission to run the program in your school from the appropriate designate in your location.
Please note: To run Let’s Get Cookin’ in your school, we ask that the ratio of facilitators to participants be 1:5 (1 facilitator for every 5 participants). All volunteers and staff members assisting with the Let’s Get Cookin’ program are required to complete the Facilitator Training and quiz prior to starting the program.
President's Choice Children's Charity Power Full Kids Eat Well
Schools that received funds from President’s Choice Children’s Charity (PCCC) Power Full Kids Eat Well program may be eligible to receive money for cooking equipment from PCCC’s Power Full Kids Grow & Cook program. Visit PCCC’s website for more information. https://www.pcchildrenscharity.ca/power-full-kids-at-school/
Borrowing Cooking Equipment from Southwestern Public Health
Southwestern Public health has kitchen equipment bins containing the equipment needed to facilitate the Let’s Get Cookin’ program which schools can borrow. For more information on borrowing (a) kitchen equipment bin(s), please email us at healthyeating@swpublichealth.ca.