Food Skills Workshops
Growing food skills one... at a time
When young people have opportunities to share meals, cook, and explore food together, they build confidence, form meaningful connections, and develop a deeper appreciation for where their food comes from. These experiences also foster essential food knowledge that supports the development of healthy habits and positive relationships with food.
Our Food Skills workshops offer youth engaging, hands-on experiences that promote independence and confidence in choosing and preparing nourishing meals.
Workshops can be tailored to different age groups, with activities shaped around the unique interests of both youth and community partners—whether it’s harvesting food from the garden, sharing a meal, or getting creative in the kitchen. Each workshop is designed to integrate a wide range of food-related knowledge and skills, including food safety, learning how to use recipes, and an understanding of the connections between food, health, the environment, and community well-being. Most importantly, these workshops invite lots of fun and creativity when it comes to learning about food and enjoying it together.
Here’s just a taste of what it can look like!
Dress to Impress: A Salad Dressings Workshop
Where youth experiment with different ingredient combinations to prepare salad dressings with local herbs and seasonal salads
Flavour Fiesta: A Dips and Spreads Workshop
Where youth dip into their creativity to explore some tasty homemade dips and spreads with local vegetables and sides.
Smoothie Lab: A Smoothie Exploration Workshop
Where youth explore and experiment with fruits and vegetables, grains and seeds, healthy fats, and other smoothie add-ins to create a nourishing snack on the go.
Our Youth Food Skills workshops are designed to be delivered in collaboration with community organizations and school groups. We support workshop development by providing recipes, comprehensive facilitation guides, and planning assistance to help your team feel confident and well-prepared. Upon request, Nourish Nova Scotia program staff may occasionally partner with a group or organization to fully design and deliver workshops; however, our capacity for direct delivery is limited, and require more time for scheduling and planning.
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We have made some of our Food Skills Workshops into facilitation guides to be used in your own school or community.
Contact Us
To request support in planning a food skills workshop, or workshop delivery, please contact: emily.stevens@nourishns.ca
"The kids at St. Joseph’s A Mackay is all talking about the food they cooked and are quite proud of their accomplishments. I think that the programs that you ran were very well timed and organized, the kids were engaged and having fun. It was clear that some of the kids felt some real ownership when in the kitchen and that was great to see. Having the kids decide what they were cooking was great because it was food they were interested in. I think that with your support we have some budding chefs on our hands. It was clear that their confidence grew in the kitchen, and I know some of them were learning these skills for the first time."
- Schools Plus staff feedback after Food Skills workshops during March break camp
Featured Resources
- Food Literacy, Food Skills
Dips and Spreads Facilitation Guide
- Food Literacy, Food Skills