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Chef Mona Jackson is the founder of Cook and Grow, a program that teaches young people about health and wellness through the art of cooking. Jackson joined News 12’s Gwen Edwards to talk more about the program and its mission.  

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Chef Mona Jackson is the founder of Cook and Grow, a program that teaches young people about health and wellness through the art of cooking. Jackson joined News 12’s Gwen Edwards to talk more about the program and its mission.

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Our Lives: Bridgeport chef teaches youth about health with cooking program

Welcome to our lives. I'm Gwen Edwards. Learning to cook, learning a healthy relationship with food, learning to grow and mind, body and spirit. My guest today is the founder of the Cook and Grow program. Welcome, Chef Mona Jackson. How did this pro Start? It started? Um with an idea that I had 17 years ago and I started noticing um kids that were like overweight had very low self esteem and I thought that it would be very cool to teach them how to eat and cook healthy meals and also gardening. 17 years later, we're still in progress and we have graduated over 300 Children from our program. Some of the programs that you offer, we offered um junior chef program, which is a six weeks program for the summer. I have collaborated with the Justice Education Department from East Hartford. So we also do basic high school um also with the full circle organization. So we do their Children. We also do adults, we do date night cooking classes, um birthday parties, cooking birthday parties. So we do sort of like everything as far as cooking chef Mona. What do you hear from the kids? When they get into the kitchen and learn sometimes for the first time about food, they are amazed of how different foods taste. Because what I try to do is to install their palette of different foods from around the world. So that's what we do. We just don't stay in one country each day. They get a new recipe and they learn how to measure. They also bake and they totally enjoy it because once they get finished cooking whatever they're cooking for that day, they sit down and eat together, having a home cooked meal is something that they don't get. Ever. That's very true. Especially when they can cook it and to teach them that, you know, fast foods and all this process foods are not good. It's not healthy, you're not just building healthy habits, but you're also building healthy life skills for these kids that they can take anywhere. Yes, that they can take with them. As a matter of fact, two of my graduate one right now is in culinary school. Um, the other one works at a restaurant, um, in Stratford. I teach them serve safe so they can, can be certified to go into a restaurant and know what they're doing about food. How do we get away from home training? Something that used to be so basic. I have no idea what my, what my kids they do have cooking growth training as far as, as safety of the kitchen and then how to hold a knife. And we also give them knife skills, um their measurements, uh the language of the kitchen for those who are hearing about this program for the first time and want to get involved. How do they contact you? They can contact cook and roll um, at 2035439493. If they want to enroll their child in our summer program, which will start in June, they can contact me that way. Chef Moana Jackson. It is a much needed skill. We are the, the only type of program like this in Bridgeport. And we're located downtown Bridgeport at 10 42 Broad Street um in a historical building of reeds, art space. And to start off being a chef, I was in corporate, I was in law, but my passion has always been food and to teach and to teach um kids and adults how to eat healthy. Thank you again, Chef Mona Jackson for sharing your story. Thank you. And we want to thank you for watching our lives where we bring you information and interviews that you will see nowhere else for our lives. I'm Gwen Edwards.

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