Which of our students don’t want to learn how to cook?

Answer – none

The school cooking program is a program created by Cielle Cowles and is specific to J.A. Laird Elementary School.
This program is accessible to the entire student body who is hungry and has been running since before 2016.

What is the “School Cooking Program”?

It’s a program is designed to:
get the students into the kitchen
preparing food
cooking the food
enjoying the food
and is some cases, sharing the food with their entire class
This program is divided into a few moving parts.

Part one:

  • The program provides breakfast, lunch and snacks for the children.
  • Breakfast may look like toast and cereal.
  • Lunch may look like cheese, crackers, fruit, granola bars.
  • Snacks may look like a combination of breakfast and lunch.

Part two:

  • Fridays is the day to cook with the students.
  • The classes are cycled through throughout the year.
  • 4 or 5 students are chosen from the class to create a dish and share it with their class.
  • The recipes are chosen for the ease of them and also to ensure the recipe will feed the class in its entirety.
  • The recipe is also carefully chosen so the student can take it home and prepare a meal for the family.
  • Under current SD6 Covid Protocols the student prepares a meal for themselves to consume, we are unable to share currently.

Part 3:

BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation offers a fruit and milk program.  Once a month, they donate fruit and milk to this school.  The donated fruit and milk is offered to the entire student body.

Who pays for this School Cooking Program?

This program is a collaborative effort between J.A. Laird and the Columbia Valley Food Bank.

Other contributors to the program are:
  • President’s Choice Children’s Charity
  • Sobeys
  • J.A. Laird PAC
  • Aboriginal Education Program
  • Hungry Kids Program
For more information on this program, please contact:

Cielle Cowles
250-342-5732
cielle.cowles@sd6.bc.ca