Chop Chop Chopping Away...
We’ve been very busy in our collective school kitchens this last month - slicing, dicing and cooking up a storm. We're currently teaching 16 classes in 11 locations across the Bay Area, and we've hired some new instructors to keep up with the demand.

This summer, we’re partnering with several organizations in Marin City, (Bridge the Gap, Play Marin, the Sausalito Marin City School District, the Freedom School and others), to teach the correlation between fresh home cooking and improved health. Summer camp runs for seven weeks.

Kids Cooking for Life is proud to partner with Horizons Unlimited of San Francisco (Horizons), to teach an additional six-week summer camp in San Francisco. Horizons is a nonprofit which provides summer activities for children who attend public schools in the Mission District.

We continue to partner with Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula and are teaching throughout the summer via our Together We Cook program. More on that coming soon...

As always, thank you for your support and loyalty. It means everything to us. You’re helping us show more and more at-risk kids and teens how to eat healthy for LIFE, and we’re so glad you’re behind us. THANK YOU!

In Gratitude,

Lara Rajninger,
Executive Director.
Prestigious Grant from Giving Marin
We were thrilled and honored to receive a prestigious award and very generous grant last month from Giving Marin, which we accepted at their annual awards ceremony held at the College of Marin in Novato. Pictured, are Lara Rajninger, Executive Director, and Beth Niles, Program Coordinator delivering their speech of our gratitude.

Giving Marin is a partnership coordinated by the Marin Independent Journal and composed of community-minded businesses in Marin County. These organizations and community representatives reviewed 130 grant applications to determine the 11 winners. 

These funds will allow us to teach 10-week courses at an additional four schools in Marin, reaching 96 students and helping them to prepare up to 1,920 meals for their families. 

This is crucial at a time when 25% of fifth through ninth graders in Marin County are obese, numbers which are exacerbated in low income neighborhoods.

Members of Giving Marin include Redwood Credit Union, Kaiser Permanente, Ghilotti Bros. Inc., College of Marin, Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, Nugget Markets, Price Simms Family Advantage Auto Dealerships, CPI Developers and Marin Independent Journal, and Sponsors Prandi Property Management and Northern Pacific Roofing, and we are so very grateful to all of them. 
Thank You to Our Kind Sponsors
This month we want to say an outsized THANK YOU to the Bothin Foundation. The Bothin Foundation makes capital grants to social service, education, arts, and environmental nonprofit organizations that provide direct services to disadvantaged children and youth (ages 0 to 24), low-income families, and people with disabilities. The foundation also supports K-12 schools exclusively serving children with learning differences. They awarded us a generous grant which will go towards kitchen equipment needed in order to expand our services to additional schools and partners. Thank you to the Bothin Foundation for being part of the solution.
Donate To Us With Amazon Smile
Did you know that you can donate money to us every time you buy something on Amazon? Simply click on the button below. It's automatically set up so a portion of what you spend will go directly to us. When you open the link you'll see the selected benefactor is 'Youth Cooking Services, Larkspur, CA.' This is the legal name for Kids Cooking for Life. (A little confusing, we know)!

Every time you wish to shop on Amazon, you enter the store using the address ‘smile.amazon,’ to activate the donation capacity. After clicking on the button, all donations will be directly set-up to come to us every time you shop. The cost to you is nothing, it only takes a few seconds and we would be SO grateful if you chose to honor us in this simple way. Every donation is significant. THANK YOU!
Instructor Profile - Rosalie Arcadi
Rosalie has been actively involved in the Bay Area food scene for over 20 years; creating and directing galas and special events, kids cooking classes, corporate team building, celebrity chef dinners and other scrumptious occasions.

As an educator, Rosalie brings her passion and knowledge of healthy cooking and nutrition into our classrooms. She strongly believes that these activities inspire and empower students with knowledge, independence and responsibility for how and what they eat. Rosalie Arcadi has a B.A. from the State University of New York and earned her California Teaching Credential at Sonoma State University.

Our students love Rosalie, as do we, and we consider her to be a huge asset to our team.
Nut-free Spinach Basil Pesto With Whole Grain Pasta
As part of our monthly 'Eat the Rainbow' challenge we’re going green for March, and we’re reflecting that with our choice of recipe, Nut-free Spinach Basil Pesto With 
Whole Grain Pasta or Panini. Green foods are packed full of antioxidants and phytonutrients that may specifically benefit your cardiovascular system. Some research suggests that eating dark leafy greens nearly every day could lower heart disease risk by almost 16%.

One of the central struggles parents everywhere encounter is getting kids to eat their greens, but the great news is this recipe has proved to be very popular with our students. And best of all, if they make it themselves they're even more likely to enjoy it!
Students Are Saying...
While making our Fresh Strawberry & Cottage Cheese Filled Crepes, last week, one of our seventh grade junior chefs said, ‘I want to learn to cook so that when I move out of my house, I can eat healthy.’

We 🍓 making a difference!