| Health |
FOR THE KIDS These ACF Chefs are feeding healthy food to future generations // By Lauren Kramer
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hildren are the next generation, and their dietary and nutritional habits should be in the spotlight. Their eating habits will dictate their future health, which will have farreaching implications on their longevity, their contribution to the workforce and the toll they will exact on the American health care system. But the data on kids’ eating habits remains worrying; a 2021 study published in the medical journal JAMA noted that 67% of calories consumed by children and adolescents in 2018 came from ultra-processed foods. We caught up with two ACF members of the newly formed International Chefs Day Task Force who are determined to make a difference, and who recognize the inherent value in teaching nutrition to the younger generation. When ACF Chef Kareen “Coco” Linton left a career in fashion design to become a chef, she knew food would be her vehicle to connect with people. But one thing that shocked her was how many ACF Chef Kareen "Coco" Linton children around her in Tampa, Fla., didn’t know where fruit and vegetables even came from. “They think it comes from supermarkets,” she says. As a kid in Barbados, Chef Linton, the CEO of A Dash of Coco LLC, recalls picking bananas from a tree outside her house and having a vegetable garden out back. “Many kids today don’t have the opportunity to see how these things can be grown, and to learn about the nutritional value of food,” she reflected. She knew she wanted to change that. When an urban farm was established behind her building in Tampa’s Downtown Tempo District in 2019, the opportunity
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presented itself. Chef Linton got to know one of the farmers, Travis Malloy, and discussed her vision of bringing elementary-aged children from the community to the farm to learn about food. He loved the idea and was eager to collaborate with her to make it happen. But with delays caused by COVID-19 among other challenges, the vision took four years to come to life. Partnering with the ACF Tampa Bay Chapter, the Tampa Housing Authority, Meacham Urban Farms, developers from Encore! Downtown Tempo District and others, Chef Linton arranged a tour for 12 neighborhood children aged 6 through 8 in October 2023. The program, set to coincide with International Chefs Day and Childhood Nutrition Day (Chef Linton is a member of the newly formed ACF International Chefs Day Task Force), involved a farm tour to meet the chickens, watch the bees in their hives and learn about some of the herbs and vegetables grown on the farm. After that, the children were taken to the Meacham Urban Farm kitchen, where they donned chefs’ caps and aprons and were given a demonstration on how to make pizza using the basil they had just learned about. “Of course, because it was pizza, everyone was happy!” Chef Linton says with a laugh. “The kids enjoyed making their own meal and wanted to know when they could do it again. Seeing the joy in their faces really touched my heart.” At press time, Chef Linton was already planning the three-course meal she would be making for those children for a Thanksgiving-style dinner. “We’re making it a white tablecloth, farm-to-table meal so they can see where these ingredients came from and at the same time, see what the different levels of service are, using food as a vehicle,” she says. A Christmas event is also in the planning, where
