Food Leadership for Youth (FLY)

Food Leadership for Youth (FLY) is an after-school program for high-school girls who want to learn how to cook while engaging in issues related to nutrition and environmental sustainability. The program has a strong leadership component that allows particpants to solidify food concepts and skills learned while gaining volunteer hours for helping to educate their peers, friends and family. The program runs once a week on Wednesdays from October to May.

FLY - Phase I (October to January)

The program during this period focuses on:

- Increasing cooking skills and training in a commercial kitchen

- Providing workshops on nutrition, gender and diet issues, media, and sustainable food systems learning

- Including numerous ice breakers that help to build group cohesion and solidarity

FLY - Phase II (February to May)

This period focuses on putting the student’s skills and knowledge into practice by:

- Hosting cultural food days. Girls have to do research on their own cultural foods, bring recipes and complete a presentation for the group

- Completing a March break camp that includes conducting primary research on a food issue of their choice, making educational videos and completing volunteer hours in Stop programs

- Writing, drawing and editing a FLY magazine (Click here to download a PDF of the FLY girls' first zine!)

- Planning and executing school food demos and presentations

- Planning and executing an Iron Chef Competition with a teaching component on nutrition for friends and family