1. Cooking Matters for Families How-To Guide
This resource has been created to introduce you to Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters for Families curriculum and share helpful tips and tricks for teaching and coordinating the course. Based on lessons learned from past classes, we hope this presentation serves as a valuable resource to help you use existing resources and your own strengths to lead a successful course.

2. Course Overview What is Cooking Matters for Families?
A 6 week PARTICIPATORY cooking class that empowers families with skills to EAT HEALTHY ON A BUDGET
Who is involved?
Facilitator- coordinates materials and volunteers; serves as a host for the class, provides weekly intro and wrap up for class cohesion
Nutrition Instructor- facilitates learning about healthy eating and shopping
Culinary Instructor- facilitates learning about healthy and safe food preparation
Class Assistant(s)- supports instructors and keeps class on track
The families!
Thank you for volunteering to share your strength with families in need. In this course, you will engage low-income parents and children in a series of participatory cooking classes designed to empower them to work together to get the most nutrition out of their limited budget.
You’ll be working as part of a team for this course and will have the opportunity to get to know some wonderful families from your community. As the course facilitator you will lead your team, ensuring that volunteer instructors are recruited and trained. The nutrition and culinary instructors will lead each class using the facilitated dialogue guide found in the instructor guide book, helping the families learn new topics, and also share their own strengths with each other.
Classroom assistants help keep everything running smoothly and on time, providing extra assistance for activities and engaging participants.
To help you navigate who does what, the slides in this presentation will be labeled in the top left corner with which team member should be responsible for completing the tasks described.

3. Target Audience: Course Basis: At least 2 generations represented
Children (at least 3rd grade), adults, or seniors
Course Basis:
Dietary Guidelines for Americans
Evidence-based guidelines
Goal: Promote good health, healthy weight, and prevent disease
Applicable for age 2 to adult, including those at risk for chronic disease
The goal of this class is to empower low-income families with the skills to stretch their food budgets so their children, and the rest of their families, can get healthy meals at home. It is unique because it’s participants span at least two generations, allowing grandparents, parents, or other guardians, and their children third grade and above to learn about healthy and affordable lifestyles together.
Like all other Cooking Matters curricula, the Families course uses the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and MyPlate as the foundation for basic nutrition guidelines, and builds upon these ideas, using interactive lessons to teach cooking, food safety, and food resource management.

4. Approaching the Instructor Guide
This presentation is not meant to replace your instructor’s guide. The guide is the most valuable resource you have in preparing for and teaching this course, so don’t forget to look over it before and keep it on hand during each class. As we go through an overview of the course, it will be helpful to follow along in your book to see the resources as we discuss them. There are sections for facilitators and instructors, so the facilitator should make sure that each person helping with the class has a copy of the guide.
Your instructor guide is divided into 4 sections: (click 1)the first section has each weeks’ lesson plan, the second (click 2) is an activity bank, (click 3) the third is a collection of all the handouts that go with the class week-by-week, and the back of the book is where all the (click 4) recipes for the course can be found.

5. Approaching the Instructor Guide
This presentation is not meant to replace your instructor’s guide. The guide is the most valuable resource you have in preparing for and teaching this course, so don’t forget to look over it before and keep it on hand during each class. As we go through an overview of the course, it will be helpful to follow along in your book to see the resources as we discuss them. There are sections for facilitators and instructors, so the facilitator should make sure that each person helping with the class has a copy of the guide.
Your instructor guide is divided into 4 sections:

6. Approaching the Instructor Guide
This presentation is not meant to replace your instructor’s guide. The guide is the most valuable resource you have in preparing for and teaching this course, so don’t forget to look over it before and keep it on hand during each class. As we go through an overview of the course, it will be helpful to follow along in your book to see the resources as we discuss them. There are sections for facilitators and instructors, so the facilitator should make sure that each person helping with the class has a copy of the guide.
Your instructor guide is divided into 4 sections: (click 1)the first section has each weeks’ lesson plan, the second (click 2) is an activity bank, (click 3) the third is a collection of all the handouts that go with the class week-by-week, and the back of the book is where all the (click 4) recipes for the course can be found.

7. Approaching the Instructor Guide
This presentation is not meant to replace your instructor’s guide. The guide is the most valuable resource you have in preparing for and teaching this course, so don’t forget to look over it before and keep it on hand during each class. As we go through an overview of the course, it will be helpful to follow along in your book to see the resources as we discuss them. There are sections for facilitators and instructors, so the facilitator should make sure that each person helping with the class has a copy of the guide.
Your instructor guide is divided into 4 sections: (click 1)the first section has each weeks’ lesson plan, the second (click 2) is an activity bank, (click 3) the third is a collection of all the handouts that go with the class week-by-week, and the back of the book is where all the (click 4) recipes for the course can be found.

8. Approaching the Instructor Guide
This presentation is not meant to replace your instructor’s guide. The guide is the most valuable resource you have in preparing for and teaching this course, so don’t forget to look over it before and keep it on hand during each class. As we go through an overview of the course, it will be helpful to follow along in your book to see the resources as we discuss them. There are sections for facilitators and instructors, so the facilitator should make sure that each person helping with the class has a copy of the guide.
Your instructor guide is divided into 4 sections: (click 1)the first section has each weeks’ lesson plan, the second (click 2) is an activity bank, (click 3) the third is a collection of all the handouts that go with the class week-by-week, and the back of the book is where all the (click 4) recipes for the course can be found.

9. Approaching the Instructor Guide
Starting with the first section of lesson plans: You can see that each of the six week’s plans follows the same pattern.
Based on an overarching goal for the week, the curriculum will walk you through how to teach key points, giving you discussion questions and referring to activities and handouts in the books’ other sections to support your exploration of the theme as a class.
The first page of each lesson has a quick reference guide of all the materials (click 1) you need for the class and suggested handouts and recipes that will help families connect to the material.
It is the facilitator’s role to prepare needed materials and handouts for each class, so be sure to discuss what you will need from these lists with any volunteer instructors ahead of time so you know what to gather.
Page I-1 in your instructors guide offers a good example of the typical lesson layout. Because the Families course is unique in including both adults and children, the guide has been written to allow you to adapt the lessons based on the ages and abilities of your group. Keep an eye out for helpful tip boxes (click 2) throughout the lessons, and the hand icon (click 3) highlighting kid friendly recipe steps to help you make these adaptations. The Activity Bank section is also a great resource for alternative activity ideas for different ages and levels of interest.
If you need to address allergy concern or are facing kitchen limitations, (click 4) the Suggested Recipes list will help you easily choose recipes that meet your needs and support your lesson.
Sample Lesson Plan (left)
and Recipe (above)

10. Approaching the Instructor Guide
Starting with the first section of lesson plans: You can see that each of the six week’s plans follows the same pattern.
Based on an overarching goal for the week, the curriculum will walk you through how to teach key points, giving you discussion questions and referring to activities and handouts in the books’ other sections to support your exploration of the theme as a class.
The first page of each lesson has a quick reference guide of all the materials (click 1) you need for the class and suggested handouts and recipes that will help families connect to the material.
It is the facilitator’s role to prepare needed materials and handouts for each class, so be sure to discuss what you will need from these lists with any volunteer instructors ahead of time so you know what to gather.
Page I-1 in your instructors guide offers a good example of the typical lesson layout. Because the Families course is unique in including both adults and children, the guide has been written to allow you to adapt the lessons based on the ages and abilities of your group. Keep an eye out for helpful tip boxes (click 2) throughout the lessons, and the hand icon (click 3) highlighting kid friendly recipe steps to help you make these adaptations. The Activity Bank section is also a great resource for alternative activity ideas for different ages and levels of interest.
If you need to address allergy concern or are facing kitchen limitations, (click 4) the Suggested Recipes list will help you easily choose recipes that meet your needs and support your lesson.
Sample Lesson Plan (left)
and Recipe (above)

11. Approaching the Instructor Guide
Starting with the first section of lesson plans: You can see that each of the six week’s plans follows the same pattern.
Based on an overarching goal for the week, the curriculum will walk you through how to teach key points, giving you discussion questions and referring to activities and handouts in the books’ other sections to support your exploration of the theme as a class.
The first page of each lesson has a quick reference guide of all the materials (click 1) you need for the class and suggested handouts and recipes that will help families connect to the material.
It is the facilitator’s role to prepare needed materials and handouts for each class, so be sure to discuss what you will need from these lists with any volunteer instructors ahead of time so you know what to gather.
Page I-1 in your instructors guide offers a good example of the typical lesson layout. Because the Families course is unique in including both adults and children, the guide has been written to allow you to adapt the lessons based on the ages and abilities of your group. Keep an eye out for helpful tip boxes (click 2) throughout the lessons, and the hand icon (click 3) highlighting kid friendly recipe steps to help you make these adaptations. The Activity Bank section is also a great resource for alternative activity ideas for different ages and levels of interest.
If you need to address allergy concern or are facing kitchen limitations, (click 4) the Suggested Recipes list will help you easily choose recipes that meet your needs and support your lesson.
Sample Lesson Plan (left)
and Recipe (above)

12. Approaching the Instructor Guide
Starting with the first section of lesson plans: You can see that each of the six week’s plans follows the same pattern.
Based on an overarching goal for the week, the curriculum will walk you through how to teach key points, giving you discussion questions and referring to activities and handouts in the books’ other sections to support your exploration of the theme as a class.
The first page of each lesson has a quick reference guide of all the materials (click 1) you need for the class and suggested handouts and recipes that will help families connect to the material.
It is the facilitator’s role to prepare needed materials and handouts for each class, so be sure to discuss what you will need from these lists with any volunteer instructors ahead of time so you know what to gather.
Page I-1 in your instructors guide offers a good example of the typical lesson layout. Because the Families course is unique in including both adults and children, the guide has been written to allow you to adapt the lessons based on the ages and abilities of your group. Keep an eye out for helpful tip boxes (click 2) throughout the lessons, and the hand icon (click 3) highlighting kid friendly recipe steps to help you make these adaptations. The Activity Bank section is also a great resource for alternative activity ideas for different ages and levels of interest.
If you need to address allergy concern or are facing kitchen limitations, (click 4) the Suggested Recipes list will help you easily choose recipes that meet your needs and support your lesson.
Sample Lesson Plan (left)
and Recipe (above)

13. Preparing for the Course
Facilitator
Visit your site
Check available classroom and kitchen facilities
Learn about site rules and processes
Gather host site contact information
An important step for the class facilitator to complete before the course is a site visit of where the class will be hosted. Visiting the kitchen and classroom areas to see what facilities are available before the course starts can help you streamline pre-class set up and avoid snags on the first day. Be sure to check what tables, chairs, white boards, and cleaning supplies are available in the classroom, and what kitchen appliances are allowed to be used and are operational. It’s a good idea to take a picture of the site so you can remember what was there when planning for your course later. It’s also very helpful to have a staff member from your host site present at the walk-through to orient you to any rules for using the facilities and inform you of policies, such as which doors are locked when and who to call if problems arise during class.
Example site visit photo

14. Preparing for the Course
Facilitator
Map out your lessons
Pick out promising activities to share with instructor as options for your class
Draft a list of recipes for each week
Taking a step back to see the big picture of the course before starting is very helpful for the facilitator and instructors. The facilitator should look through the curriculum before the course starts and map out a schedule for the recipes and activities the class will most likely use over the six weeks. While these recipes might change, it’s helpful to go ahead a pick a recipe for each week to ensure you have a variety of recipe types and cooking techniques represented without repeating. For example, if you were to select veggie wraps, tacos, and burritos for your class, your participants may get tired of tortilla-based recipes. Try to mix up your meals with food like casseroles, stir fries, and sides that ensure at least 3 food groups are represented during each class. Keep in mind what kitchen facilities you observed during your site visit. If your site has a stove but no oven, for example, you should not plan on making mini pizzas or other oven-dependent recipes.
Sample recipe list from pre-class planning session. Includes options for kitchens with stoves and only skillets.