Chicago-based non-profit Healthy Schools Campaign has been on my radar since I was in journalism grad school at Northwestern in 2009. I was doing health and science reporting, and stumbled upon this amazing organization in the process. (I’ve written about them here before, too! I have loved keeping up with HSC through the years.)
They operate with the belief that every child deserves to thrive in their learning environments, and have several programs in place to address that belief from a variety of angles. Fit to Learn gives teachers and administrators resources to help bring health and wellness into the classroom. Green Clean Schools helps make school buildings and campuses cleaner and safer, turning them into better places to learn. Parents United pulls in parents on a journey to wellness, realizing that health extends far beyond the school building AND recognizing that more voices make for greater change.
But today, we’re here to talk about my favorite Healthy Schools Campaign program: Cooking Up Change.
Here’s the gist: Cooking Up Change is a nationwide high school competition that challenges culinary students to put together a school meal within the nutritional and cost parameters schools face daily. (Sounds fun, right? It is!)
For this podcast episode, I spoke with Sara Porter, VP of External Affairs at Healthy Schools Campaign, who manages the Cooking Up Change program (and has for more than a decade). Sara is passionate about this program, and hearing her talk about it is truly a treat.
I’ll let her take it from here, but wanted to be sure to include links to some of the resources she mentions toward the end of this episode for those of you interested in learning more about Healthy Schools Campaign (and potentially donating or getting involved in some way):
- HSC website (scroll down on the homepage for the newsletter sign-up!)
- donation page
And here’s the episode!:
