American Heart Association | Simple Cooking with Heart Baltimore Kitchen
The landscape and culture of food and food preparation has changed. Three generations of Americans have not been taught to cook at home or at school. Stressed families lack the time and/or skills to prepare healthy meals at home. In fact, 50 percent of their food dollars are spent away from home. The more people eat out, particularly at fast-food restaurants, the more calories, fat, and sodium they consume, and away-from-home meals typically contain fewer fruits, vegetables, and whole grains than food prepared at home.
Our goal at the American Heart Association is to equip families with the necessary skills, tools, and resources to prevent obesity and improve the overall health of Americans. The Simple Cooking with Heart Kitchen, an initiative to combat obesity, is the first-ever community teaching kitchen for the American Heart Association.
The motive for building a community teaching kitchen is that we believe when you teach individuals how to prepare and cook their own meals and expose them to fresh foods, people are empowered to change the way they eat.
Our mission at the Simple Cooking with Heart Kitchen is to teach our Baltimore neighbors how to prepare simple, delicious, and inexpensive meals at home so they can enjoy the benefits of eating healthier and feel more confident cooking for their families.
The Simple Cooking with Heart Kitchen delivers hands-on cooking classes using recipes that are budget friendly, heart healthy and align with the American Heart Association dietary recommendations around sodium, sugar and fat intake. While our in-kitchen instruction has paused due to the pandemic, we’ve taken our classes online and offer virtual cooking classes using Zoom. Our new digital strategy allows us the opportunity to reach many more community members interested in learning how to cook healthy food at home. For more information about our digital classes or to view a schedule of classes, please email [email protected].
How to get involved: To sign up to take a class, visit: heart.org/baltimorekitchen, our facebook page or contact us at [email protected].
Follow us on social media: Facebook: @baltimoreheartkitchen andInstagram: @SCWHKitchen