Cooking Sprouts is a cooking and vegetable gardening program for public school students in Brooklyn that operates under the auspices of New York Cares. On Saturdays throughout the growing season, from April to October, twenty children from 2nd through 4th grade and eight adult volunteers garden and prepare delicious meals together. Kids see that there’s something magical and joyful in cooking and eating food you’ve planted, grown, and harvested yourself, and they share what they’ve learned with their families. “My daughters have taught me how to eat,” Odelia, the mother of two “sprouts” said. “Now, many things that I used to eat, they say are unhealthy to eat. They learn how to cook and they teach me how to cook—things like vegetables and greens. They didn’t eat those things before. Now they see that these things are good and they eat them.“
