Cooking class for kids offers lesson on caring
Young volunteers prepare meals for new and expectant moms at Massey Centre
My 8-year-old son is making dessert. Alister is peeling pears, brow slightly furrowed, tongue poking out of his lips in concentration. Once peeled and cored, the pears will be poached and served atop a citrusinfused panna cotta.
Nearby, his 12-year-old brother Cameron is chopping onions. His eyes are stinging but with chef Carl Heinrich, Top Chef Canada winner and owner of downtown restaurant Richmond Station, nearby, there’s no talk of throwing in the towel, er, chef’s knife. Not with Bolognese sauce for 50 to prepare.
The boys and I are at the Massey Centre in East York with Kids Cook to Care (KCTC), a non-profit created to give child volunteers a chance to cook for people in high-needs communities, acquiring kitchen skills and knowledge of cuisine from different cultures. Tonight, they’re working alongside eight other kids ages 6 to 16 to make an Italian meal for expectant and new moms who live at the centre. KCTC was founded in 2009 by Toronto moms Jill Lewis and Julie Levin.
“We used to live in New York and, when we were there, we used to volunteer at a shelter on the upper west side,” says Lewis. “When we moved here, I promised the kids we would cook and care in Toronto. But no one would let us into their homeless shelters or soup kitchens. It was adult-only or 10 and up. So, with a girlfriend, we decided to see if we could make a difference. David Lee from Nota Bene was our first chef — we hounded the crap out of him and he finally said yes. And we’ve never looked back.” Heinrich says KCTC holds a lot of meaning for him. “I very much relate to the program, to the kids cooking and especially to the Massey Centre. My mother had me when she was 19 years old and I was her second kid. We went through probably more difficult times than most growing up.”
His education as a cook began when he was in his early teens and his mom, then in her late 20s, was working full time and juggling her duties as a single mother of three.
“My oldest sister and I started cooking one meal a week. That’s why I chose this meal because the sauce was one of my first meals cooking for my family. I’d come home from school, open the cans, brown the beef, have a sauce ready, boil some water and my mom would come home and tell me when the noodles were done.
“That started, not necessarily the career, but the passion for food. We never ate out at restaurants and we never had expensive ingredients. It was ground beef and frozen chicken breasts, but we ate well on a budget.”
Heinrich says he hopes that as word gets out about the program, more chefs will volunteer their services for the monthly meals. “You’re not doing it for the press. You do it because it’s right. And I hope that a lot of other chefs see that.”
Just as the leftovers from his first batches of spaghetti sauce would be turned into lasagna and then chili later in the week when he was growing up, the kids at KCTC chop enough onions and mushrooms to (with a little help from moms who handled stirring over the hot industrial stoves) make enough sauce to leave a giant pot of leftovers for the women.
Next, little Play-Doh-adept hands roll balls of pasta dough into long snakes. Older kids slice them into pieces and everyone’s thumbs are put to use shaping the orecchiette, which means little ears in Italian.
The kids fly into action when Heinrich says the meal cannot be served until the kitchen is clean. They then form an assembly line to plate the pasta, sauce, salad and garlic bread. The youngest volunteer, 6-year-old Grace, proudly helps ferry the plates from the counter to the residents, many of whom are cradling babies in their arms.
To get to the Massey Centre on time that day, I’d pulled the kids out of school an hour early, a decision that was easy to make given the richness of the experience.
When all the guests were served, the kids joined the residents at the tables with the plates of pasta they’d been so eager to taste while working in the kitchen.
My boys sat next to a young woman who didn’t yet have a babe in her arms. “Stay in school, kids. And don’t cut class, either. It’s a bad path to go down.”
There was never any doubt, really, but I couldn’t help feeling this one moment made it well worth having the kids miss last period.
To get involved as a volunteer, or to donate to KCTC to help cover the costs of the meals, go to kidscooktocare.com. The organization also orchestrates corporate events and birthday parties for those looking to add meaning to their gatherings. Brandie Weikle is a parenting expert and the host of The New Family Podcast and editor of thenewfamily.com.