K to A: Healthy Foods, Healthy Life – Food Literacy for Aboriginal Youth and Families

Sakewew High School created a Nutrition Literacy Cooking Class that focused on healthy, inexpensive meals, traditional foods, cooking for reconciliation. Students learned about food and meal planning, budgeting, shopping, cooking, and cleaning through this weekly class. Through the initiative, several students were also able to earn a certified in safe food handling, which they added to their resumes for summer and/or part time jobs. The students were also able to take “lots of healthy food to share with their family.”

Additionally, the program strengthened school-student-family connections by getting youth and their family members involved in after school activities with their teachers. “The cooking classes with students and their families allowed [teachers] to build stronger relationships with the families that did participate. Many students brought members of their families to the cooking classes, and fun and laughter was apparent in the each of the sessions.” “It [was] great to be able to build those relationships with our students outside of the ‘classroom’ context.”