Imagine, a perfectly seared steak served with a side of warm baked potatoes and Caesar salad made from scratch. This mouthwatering dish was the grand finale to a series of youth cooking classes offered by our YTA Food Club. For many of the youth participating, experiencing a meal like this would have been an out-of-reach luxury, but the YTA Food Club makes it possible for them cook up anything they can dream of.

YTA had hosted previous iterations of food programming and online cooking classes, but they mainly consisted of budget-friendly meals. When the team came across leftover money from the Cooking Toward Independence Grant provided by the Children’s Aid Foundation of Canada, youth support worker Seth Munoz saw an opportunity to do something different.

“I really wanted to go for it in a fun way, so I asked the youth what luxury meals they'd love to do, what they’d see on TV or in restaurants that they've always wanted to order but never had the opportunity to eat it or cook it,” Seth says.

Roasting fish and making their own pizza were just some of the enthusiastic responses that came up. Once Seth’s idea for Food Club was approved for funding, they rolled up their sleeves and got started.

The YWCA Community Kitchen offered the perfect space for youth cook in a beautiful commercial-grade kitchen. This was also the YTA’s first in-person programming in a while, making Food Club an extra special treat for the youth.

“By working with what they're excited about, what they're passionate about, they engage more, and then it gives them investment and ownership of what they're doing.”

For their first class, Seth brought in fifteen different spices for youth to try and learn how to use their flavours to transform a dish. Each consecutive lesson would then build on what they learned in the previous class. The classes aim to teach youth the skills to cook food they like, so that when they have the opportunity to buy food in the future, they’re able to cook meals they enjoy.

Food Club has been a rewarding experience in more ways than one. Recently, the youth had lots of extra food they had cooked so they decided to serve their dishes to people in the YWCA lobby. Seth says the youth loved being able to share their cooking and feed others.

“Food is transformative. It builds community, and it really unites people,” Seth says. “It's been really nice to see youth not only interact with each other, feed other people, learn kitchen skills, but it's also been great to see them excited about food and excited about things.”