Setting the Table for Fettuccine, Family Connections, and Healthy Futures

With 30 years of cooking classes, many Cooking with Kids students are now adults! Our staff often run into them—at grocery stores, restaurants, and even volunteering in classrooms with their own kids—bringing back fond memories of their time in our classes. And the recipe almost everyone remembers? Fettuccine. 

Why is that? If you’ve had the chance to visit one of our fettuccine cooking classes, you’ll know why. Making homemade pasta is magical. Right now, kids across northern New Mexico are experiencing that magic.Take a peak into one our classes below...

Interested in seeing a fettuccine class firsthand? Reach out to us!

This is our FAVORITE kind of holiday greenery–edible and delicious! Kids have been hand-grinding pesto, hand-cranking fresh fettuccine noodles, and handing over their plates for seconds and thirds! [Get the recipe here] –and by all means use a food processor in place of the mortar and pestle we use with kids!

 “Cooking with Kids is fun because you can cook and then when we get home, we can show our parents.” 
–Isabella, age 9

There’s something else magical happening in Cooking with Kids classes, too. As kids cook alongside classmates, teachers, and family volunteers, they’re not just practicing new skills–they’re shaping what happens at home. As one parent recently shared, “My child is excited about Cooking with Kids. He tells me right away what he tried. He even asked me to get ingredients to make something that he tried in Cooking with Kids.” 

The confidence that kids build in class becomes confidence at home–transforming mealtimes, encouraging new foods, and sparking pride in what families can cook together.

Many families in northern New Mexico cannot afford to offer new, healthy foods that their kids may refuse to eat. Cooking with Kids supports (and often speeds up!) food acceptance so that kids actually eat their veggies!

Recently, eight-year-old Jaime proudly shared with his classmates that he made the harvest salad for a family gathering. “I was nervous, but I followed the recipe and it came out like it did in class! Everybody loved it!" 

Coming to the Table for a Common Purpose

The magic doesn’t stop there. When we gather together–and open our table to new friends who share our vision of a healthy future–the impact of Cooking with Kids multiplies, reaching the 8,000 children who rely on our programs this year.

You, our most essential advocates, remind everyone that Cooking with Kids is so much bigger than kids kneading dough or cracking eggs or whisking salad dressing. 

Because Cooking with Kids supports families at the place where healthy habits take root.

We reach kids–some beginning as early as age 3–and nurture them through their entire time in elementary school. That means that for every child who just started school this year, building healthy futures starts NOW.

Cooking with Kids is up to the challenge. But we are still working to close the gap left by this July’s federal funding cuts. Now is the time to make an impact.

If you’ve been considering a gift, now is the time to give. [Donate Today!]

If you’ve been considering deepening your impact, reach out to learn more about the Healthy Futures Society. [Contact us!]

And if you are reading this and thinking, “I know someone who loves food and cares deeply about kids,” now is the time to tell them about Cooking with Kids!

Thank you for setting the table for new supporters:


Forward this email, tell a friend about Cooking with Kids or invite them to our Holiday Open House—every connection counts.