2000

# of people served since joining TKC

Member since 2020

Children’s Teaching Kitchen to Make Kids Better Today and Healthier Tomorrow

The Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Teaching Kitchen empowers children, their families and employees to select, prepare and taste healthy foods through interactive cooking and nutrition programming.  The Children’s Teaching Kitchen curriculum is designed to enhance clinical care by providing experiential learning opportunities while building confidence in the kitchen.

Several classes taught in the Children’s Teaching Kitchen include disease-specific recommendations for children living with chronic illnesses or health conditions, including but not limited to the following:

  • Balanced meals and carbohydrate counting education for children with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
  • Food preparation education for caretakers of children who are patients of the Feeding Clinic. These children may have difficulty chewing or swallowing certain textures.
  • Cooking classes for patients with food allergies and their caregivers.

Cooking class topics include nutrition education on creating a balanced plate, grocery shopping, meal planning, cooking skills and more. The classes also provide simple, quick and tasty recipes that can easily be cooked at home.

We partner with our Strong 4 Life Employee Wellness dietitians to teach healthy cooking demonstrations and hands-on team building classes for the employees of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

Key Data

  • In 2019, we provided 44 cooking classes for over 420 patients with new onset  diabetes—type 1 or type 2—and their families.
Quick Facts

2

1 Clinical Diabetes Education Manager (Registered Dietitian / Certified Diabetes Educator), 1 Teaching Kitchen Coordinator (Registered Dietitian and Chef), Several Contract Chef Instructors

Built-in kitchen in a healthcare setting

IMPACT

The best feature of the class was learning how to actually know the right foods to start eating and how easy it is to prepare certain small meals. Also, the nutritionist and the chef were awesome!

Caregiver of a child with Type 2 Diabetes

The class renewed my love for cooking and provided inspiration for future healthy meals!

Employee of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

Press and Publications

Reporter Newspapers & Atlanta Intown. “CHOA’s Center for Advanced Pediatrics building to open July 24,” July 2018