“A Bite of Hope” Culinary Program at Houston-Area 21st CCLC Program

Marissa Rodriguez and Jessica Rodriguez are family engagement specialists with the Houston area Alief Independent School District’s 21^st CCLC program: Children Interacting Afterschool (CIA). Through a valuable partnership with Hope Clinic, a fast-growing community health center, they have helped to develop an initiative, A Bite of Hope, to provide students and families in their community with valuable experiences preparing healthy foods.

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Transcript

Y4Y: Jessica, why don’t you share with us a little about the size of your CIA program.

Jessica: We’re an afterschool program tied closely to the school day; in fact, our staff members are almost all certified teachers. We offer a lot of enrichment with a heavy academic emphasis, but also offer social and emotional learning opportunities. CIA is in 29 campuses around the district and serves about 120 students at each of our sites. The program is so popular that many campuses have waiting lists.

Y4Y: That’s a pretty wide reach! So, “Bite of Hope” is just one aspect of your out-of-school time program. Starting at the beginning, Marissa, can you share what the program is all about and how it got started?

Marissa: Sure! I already had an established partnership for 16 years or so with the Hope Clinic, and since then they have expanded in the last few years, including developing a culinary program to help fight diabetes: Cities Changing Diabetes. They were really just piloting at the time, they reached out to me, and asked if we, CIA, would assist by piloting this program by having some of our students participate. The whole idea was to expose students and their families to new ways of cooking – healthy cooking with fresh organic produce – using the simple ingredients of salt, pepper, and olive oil. We literally started with just 10 students, with four or five sessions twice a week, over a three- or four-week period. Our students learned to cook several entrées and at the last session we invited the families to participate, and students cooked for their parents.

Y4Y: I can’t tell you how many of our Voices From the Field interviews come to the point of, “And then the pandemic hit.” But you were able to use that in your favor for your Bite of Hope enrichment, isn’t that right?

Marissa: Yes, that’s right! The CIA program was going virtual, so families were getting used to that environment. But this opportunity to expand meant needing to bring in more partners, so we brought in the Houston Food Bank and the vendor, Common Market. We expanded from 10 students to now servicing about 63 families a week. These new partners allowed us to provide families everything they’d need to prepare a recipe at no cost to them. Being very honest, it’s a lot of hard work and not a lot of manpower. We have to go to various locations to pick up or shop for ingredients, bring them back to sort the groceries and now that we’re back in person, get them distributed to the different campuses that are participating.  The campuses have to take turns: Only 15 students at a time, on a Tuesday or Thursday, are participating for three-week sessions. And then we start all over at the next campus for three weeks.

Y4Y: Please tell us about some of your favorite outcomes from running the “Bite of Hope” program in CIA.

Marissa: You know, even I have changed the way I cook. Instead of rice, now I make quinoa. I use minimal spices. And the families are learning these ways of simple, healthy cooking too. Even if they’re not doing much cooking, they’re being exposed to new food and ideas. Best of all, we get the kids to at least try something new. Last night they cooked pasta from scratch and made fresh pesto sauce to go on it. I like to brag about the program both because it’s a lot of fun, and because it addresses an important part of student success: their health! And since they’re learning by doing, and not just being talked at about staying healthy, I believe the lessons really stick.

Y4Y: We’ve discovered just how important that is to do in out-of-school time, that’s for sure! So, going back to the fact that only 15 of, say, 120 students in CIA at any given campus can participate at a time, how do you choose the 15?

Jessica: Our site coordinators and family engagement staff really know their families, so we give them plenty of notice of when it will be their turn for “culinary” we call it, and they open the invitation to the families they know need it the most. Many of our families, besides having limited financial resources, live in food deserts where the only chance they have to get fresh produce easily might be an apple or orange at a gas station. So we give them fresh, seasonal produce, plus, if a recipe calls for a cup of milk, we just drop off a gallon. Two eggs? We drop off a dozen. Really, because of our partners, we’re helping to feed those families more than just one meal. The program is very popular, and we’d love to open it to more families, but we are somewhat limited based on how much work goes into running the program.

Y4Y: Why don’t you break that down for us a little more, if you would. What does a three-week session involve?

Marissa: Sure! During each session, we have one group that is cooking on campus – those are our middle and intermediate school students – and one group that will take the food home to cook with their families. For safety reasons, and skill and attention level, that’s our elementary students. Families of the elementary students will pick up their package of ingredients on a Tuesday, and then our professional chef works with them virtually on Wednesday night to prepare the meal as a family. Then on Thursdays, a second chef comes onto campus to cook a meal with the older students, who package up their meal and take it home for their whole family to enjoy. The chefs are paid by Hope Clinic, and always share a lot of useful tips and knowledge during the sessions.

Y4Y: A lot of programs introduce cooking as a way of sneaking in math or science. Would you say there’s a lot of academic emphasis on your sessions?

Jessica: Not really, because we believe the importance of culinary is learning specific culinary skills, so we want it to be its own thing. After that, I’d say the emphasis is on health. The students are definitely learning some math concepts, such as the relationships between teaspoons, tablespoons, and cups, and the lessons from the chef do follow a curriculum. But what the students gain in lifelong habits is probably just as important as finding another way to reinforce math or science. And we want to be absolutely sure it’s fun and engaging for the kids.

Y4Y: That’s a great perspective on this type of enrichment opportunity. Do you have any advice for programs like yours that might like to start their own culinary program?

Jessica: You know, obviously intentional partnerships are a big part of making something like this work. But Marissa took something that was just an idea of a partner’s, and she worked hand in hand to make it happen and expand along the way. Adaptability and willingness to work with what partners might have in mind – or shaping that vision together is really important.

Marissa: Yes, that vision is so important, and staying committed to it. And I would add that starting small to work out all the details would probably be very important. Making sure you have a team of people who will be dedicated is also something we couldn’t have survived without, because it is a lot of work. Jessica and I are chasing all over town to different partners to pick up food, shop, and organize all these fresh ingredients quickly to make sure they stay fresh. But we do what we have to do to better serve our families and the end result makes it all worth it.

Marissa Rodriguez, BA, is the Family Engagement Specialist for Alief Children Interacting Afterschool Programs. She has been working in Alief Independent School District through non-profits and in her current position for over 25 years. She focuses her attention and passion with families of the community, insuring they have the resources and access to out of school time programs.

Jessica Rodriguez, MSW, is the Family Engagement Specialist for the Children Interacting Afterschool programs for Alief ISD. She has been working with the school district for over six years and feels strongly motivated to create the necessary space to support students and their families outside of academic hours.