Photo credit: The Junior League of Philadelphia
By Kharisma McIlwaine
For over a decade, the Junior League’s Kids in the Kitchen program has been transforming after-school hours into lessons on health. Now in its 11th year in Philadelphia, Kids in the Kitchen addresses serious issues like childhood obesity and food insecurity by teaching over 1,200 students how to prepare simple, nutritious meals, while giving them practical ways to make better choices for themselves and their families.
The Junior League of Philadelphia’s (JLP) VP of Community Lauren Whalen, and Chrissie Scott-Waldron, co-chair of Kids in the Kitchen, spoke with the SUN about JLP’s mission to improve the health and wellness of children and families throughout the tri-state area.
The Kids in the Kitchen initiative has deep roots and a wide reach — a program that started in Canada now serves thousands in the Philadelphia area.
“Kids in the Kitchen is a model that has been developed by a sister league,” Scott-Waldron said. “We all have our own Junior League in our cities and towns. It was started by a sister league in Calgary, Canada 25 years ago and was adopted by our national association, Junior Leagues International.”
“It’s a league-wide initiative that serves over 250 communities,” she added. “It was started to emphasize healthy eating in response to rising rates of childhood obesity. But our league, the Junior League of Philadelphia, adopted this model about 10 years ago. We’re in our 11th year of programming and we were excited to adopt it because in our league we focus on reducing food insecurity and promoting healthy food choices for Philly. We started this program in 2014 with Christopher Columbus Charter School. Since then, we’ve greatly expanded our work and currently our Kids in the Kitchen program is operating in eight afterschool programs across the general Philadelphia area, including some programs in Camden. We have over 1,200 students enrolled this academic year.”
The six-week program delivers healthy food practices directly to students, an effort that requires a dedicated committee’s year-round coordination.
“We have the Kids in the Kitchen committee at the Junior League of Philadelphia and we work all year,” Scott-Waldron said. “Over the summer in August, we’re contacting these afterschool programs and coordinating the schedules, [considering questions like], ‘What that will look like?’ ‘What day of the week, [and] what time would these lessons happen?’”
“Our committee puts together weekly themed lessons and activities and demonstrations,” Scott-Waldron said. “Then the kids prepare the healthy meals and snacks hands-on; we build the curriculum, we purchase all the supplies, we send all the supplies ahead of time to the program, so they keep the supplies on site. Then we coordinate the weekly food ingredients delivery. We try to keep the recipes easy, nutritious, with accessible ingredients and fun so that the kids want to keep doing it and talk to their families about it when they’re done at the end of the day.”
Through hands-on lessons — like making fruity face pizza and veggie snails — Kids in the Kitchen keeps its curriculum fresh for K-8 students each semester. Its expansion is driven by a growing demand for food education in a city facing significant food insecurity.
“One of the ways that I think we’re kind of judging the effectiveness of this program, is the fact that we’ve grown so much and there’s such a need for this type of curriculum,” Whalen said. “You know, a lot of times things like home economics and cooking are getting removed from curriculums. What we’re hearing from the community partners is more and more people keep coming to the table every semester wanting to get involved with this program. So, we’re definitely seeing interest among schools and among educators in this and we’re seeing foundationally why this is so important. We know food insecurity is on the rise, and that also means understanding healthy eating, lifestyle and food preparation,” Whalen said. “There’s so much that goes into that. In Philly, there’s some really disturbing numbers and things have been getting worse since the pandemic. One in five families are facing food insecurity and 25% of kids — one in four kids. So, this continues to feel like such a needed area for us as the Junior League — making sure that we’re doing hands-on work in the community, helping teach kids about healthy choices in food. It really feels impactful in that way, because it feels like we’re meeting a community need. We do hear lots of great feedback anecdotally from the teachers who are running this, or the staff, as well as the kids who are having so much fun with it.”
To meet a clear and growing need, the program’s future relies on the Philadelphia community’s involvement. “Anyone can donate to help us further our mission and continue to expand the program,” Whalen said. “We are always looking for new Junior League members. We are an organization of women from across the Philly metro area. Obviously, we’re working to advance women’s leadership for meaningful community impact. We do this through volunteer action, collaboration and training. We would encourage anyone who’s interested in learning more about potentially coming out to join us.”
For those interested in joining the JLP, visit their website at jlphiladelphia.org, or their social media channels (IG @jl_philadelphia and https://www.facebook.com/JuniorLeaguePhiladelphia/) to follow and see the work they do. Corporate sponsors and donors are always welcome.
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