It’s with immense joy and gratitude that I share the news of our latest achievement: the largest grant in our organization's history, generously awarded by the Oakland Soda Tax SSB Community Fund. We are so grateful to Oakland Human Services for this incredible grant.
We can’t wait to put it to work to help even more Bay Area kids and teens understand how being sugar-smart and cooking from fresh can significantly improve their long-term health and help prevent diet-related diseases. But we're also keenly aware that this milestone would not have been possible without YOU!
Over the past 15 years, we’ve grown from offering a few healthy cooking classes in Marin, to covering seven counties in the Bay Area, serving hundreds of kids and teens in under-resourced communities each year.
Whether it’s sharing our mission with others, volunteering your time, bringing in a new supporter or financial gifts, you have ALL helped us grow. Your support and contributions go beyond financial assistance; they are a testament to your belief in the power of community and the potential for positive change. THANK YOU for everything!
In other news, we’re springing along this semester, teaching in over 25 different classrooms across the Bay. We’re grateful to be expanding our summer camp programs and are busy working with several different partners to make them both fun and educational. We have six summer camps confirmed, in Marin, Oakland, Palo Alto, Daly City and South San Francisco with more planned, and are currently recruiting more staff to help us.
Whether you’re new to our mission or have stood behind us for a long time, please accept our heartfelt thanks for your unwavering commitment. Together, we are making a difference, one grant at a time.
|
|
Warm wishes,
Lara Rajninger
Executive Director
|
|
|
Developing a Longevity Fund |
|
Most well established non-profits have a rainy day fund, as it’s quite simply best practice. And since we’ve been growing exponentially, we want to reinforce all our progress and future proof ourselves by starting one too. To this end, we’ve been discussing the way forward with our board.
Our president, Saeri Yuk, and our executive director, Lara Rajninger, are passionately committed to Kids Cooking for Life, and have been volunteering their time to manage it for over four and eight years respectively. Although neither of them have any intention of leaving any time soon, we think it’s time to gather the resources to fund their positions, so we can fill them down the line.
|
|
We Were Featured in a Podcast |
|
Our Executive Director, Lara Rajninger, was thrilled to be interviewed for the renowned Baby Steps Nutrition podcast, by pediatric dietician Argavan Nilforoush, RD. Argavan has a wealth of experience including formerly working as a general medicine dietician at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, Oakland. She now runs a personalized nutrition consultancy in the Bay Area for infants, children and youths, up to 21 years of age. Argavan's informative podcasts delve deep into many areas of nutrition and are well worth a listen. In this episode, Lara discusses what drives us, what we do and what more needs to be done to reduce levels of childhood diabetes and other preventable diet-related diseases in order to reverse a looming health crisis.
|
|
Maximize the Health Benefits of Broccoli |
|
Broccoli is packed with essential vitamins and minerals like vitamins C, K, folate, and magnesium, but its standout feature is a powerful phytochemical called sulforaphane. Sulfuraphane has been strongly linked to reduced incidences of lung, colorectal, breast, prostate, pancreatic, and stomach cancers. |
|
Come and help us make a difference. We're looking for instructors to join our friendly and supportive team, especially for our upcoming summer camps in June and July, but also for the upcoming '24-'25 school year. We cover Marin, San Francisco, Alameda, Sonoma, Solano, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. Our summer camps will be in Marin, Oakland, Palo Alto, Daly City and South San Francisco, with more planned.
If you're Bay Area based, enthusiastic about healthy eating, with previous experience of working with kids and solid cooking skills, we want to hear from you. You can see a full job description by clicking on the link below.
We welcome you to share this vacancy with anyone you think may be interested.
|
|
Vote for Us In Marin Mag's Best of County Awards |
|
Marin Magazine is currently accepting votes for their annual Best in County Awards. We're thrilled to be nominated under Best Youth Services, in their philanthropy section. We'd be so grateful if you could spare a moment to show your support, by voting for us.
Simply click on the button below, fill in your email address and your zip code, you will then be taken to the page of philanthropy nominees. Best Youth Services is at the bottom of the page. Click next to our name and submit.
Publicity helps spread awareness of our important work. THANK YOU!
|
|
Recipe for Ginger Veggie Stir-Fry |
|
After going into so much depth about maximizing the health benefits of broccoli, here's a wonderful recipe to help you do just that. We often cook this yummy stir-fry in our classrooms and the kids love it. It's quick, easy, and nutritious and makes a great mainstay. Replacing the water with vegetable or chicken broth is also delicious, and you can add up to half a teaspoon of red pepper flakes for a bit of kick too. |
|
(About our rainbow fried rice)...
“It's even better than Panda Express!”
Junior Chef from The San Geronimo Community Center.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
