When kids are immersed in enjoyable activities, they absorb and retain information more effectively. For example, the more children have fun cooking with fresh fruits and vegetables, the more likely they are to appreciate these healthier ingredients. This is a shared value between Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and The Creative Kitchen. The Creative Kitchen fosters this philosophy and expands upon it in their hands-on children’s cooking classes, events and activities. The Kids Food Festival, presented by The Creative Kitchen, is an important event that brings the philosophy of learning through fun to a wide family audience. The Kids Food Festival is once again returning to NYC’s Bryant Park for a weekend full of family-friendly events on March 5th and March 6th! Families will cook, dance, laugh, and taste their way to making balanced food choices!

At the Kids Food Festival, kids engage all five senses through hands-on, food-related activities. The magic of the festival is rooted in the fact that kids are having so much fun participating in flavorful activities, they don’t even realize how much they are learning! Enthusiastic eaters and little epicures alike can attend hands-on cooking classes at the James Beard Foundation Future Foodies Pavilion, where renowned chefs pass on their recipes, skills, and love for all things culinary to a new generation of learners. The Balanced Plate Scavenger Hunt (based on USDA ChooseMyPlate.gov guidelines) is the core educational component of the Festival. To complete the hunt, kids bounce between exhibitors and activities to sample tasty, wholesome snacks while learning the importance of achieving balance in their food choices. Families will enjoy live musical performances, a disco dance party, fitness workshops, and more, with each of the activities relaying special messages about healthful eating!

Cricket Azima, founder of the Kids Food Festival and Big Cheese of The Creative Kitchen, has a passion for cooking with kids. In fact, The Creative Kitchen teaches kids about healthful eating in her hands-on cooking classes in New York City throughout the year. Recently, their cooking curricula, Everybody Can Cook was published in effort to allow both general and special education instructors to bring hands-on cooking classes to children of all abilities, ages 2 and up, in their own classrooms. Training workshops by The Creative Kitchen are offered in addition to Everybody Can

Cook in order to teach and empower instructors to teach fun hands-on cooking classes to children of all ages and abilities. Both the training sessions and Everybody Can Cook are designed to create a positive relationship between children and food. All the recipes and lesson plans feature colorful fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Everybody Can Cook emphasizes the philosophy that the more comfortable kids are with their foods, the more likely they are to eat it and enjoy it!

Kids and their families will definitely enjoy the Kids Food Festival on March 5th and March 6th at NYC’s Bryant Park. General admission to the event is free, and tickets to the hands-on cooking classes in the James Beard Foundation Future Foodies Pavilion can be purchased here.

Visit http://www.kidsfoodfestival.com, or the Kids Food Festival Facebook page, and on Twitter at @KidsFoodFestFun!

May 17^th: Food Revolution Day with Jamie Oliver!

If you’ve been friends of The Creative Kitchen for a while you’ve heard us sing Jamie Oliver’s praises over and over! As an acclaimed chef, author, and television personality, Jamie has devoted his career to educating the world about making better food choices and has lobbied for healthier food in schools through his various charities including: The Better Food Foundation (UK), The Jamie Oliver Food Foundation (US), and The Good Foundation (AUS).

This month, we can all join Jamie and crew in “taking a stand for good food and essential cooking skills” by joining in the Food Revolution Day activities happening in your area. Individuals, school groups, community centers and more will come together on May 17^th to share cooking skills, knowledge, and most importantly, delicious food! To find out where Food Revolution Day activities are taking place in your community or to take charge and organize your own event, visit the Food Revolution Website.

Need some ideas for your own Food Revolution Day festivities? Get inspired by some of our favorite examples from the Food Revolution Community:

• Show community farmers some love and create your own  “Hug a Farmer Day”. The public school community in Toronto Canada is celebrating by gathering kids and parents to meet, greet, appreciate, and yes…HUG Toronto area farmers!
• Take a tip from Scoop Nutrition blog in Melbourne, Australia and host a “Jamie Oliver Cook-Off”! Kids can choose their favorite recipe from Jamie’s archive, source local ingredients, and share with family and friends on May 17^th!
• Make it a party like Disco Salad in Vienna, Austria and host children’s cooking classes using fresh, local ingredients while grooving to disco music! Funky and fun!
• Download the printable stickers, flyers, and coloring pages on the Food Revolution Day website to help spread the word!

The Creative Kitchen™, LLC, teaches children about food and how to cook in a fun, safe, and educational manner.  Targeting families with children ages two to teen, the company focuses on teaching, writing creative content and curriculum, special events, recipe development, spokesperson work, webisode production and consulting to present educational and entertaining content through food-related activities. The founder, Cricket Azima, is an expert in cooking for and with children.  She inspires kids to express themselves creatively through food and cooking, while complementing lessons with traditional educational material such as social studies, math, arts, science, and more. Visit www.thecreativekitchen.com for more information.