Barb Finley claps her hands once and the grade four and five students stop talking and clap back. Five kids each at five tables, all wearing white chef’s aprons and ready to undergo Day Three of Project CHEF. They don’t want to miss a thing.

They’ve already mastered the claw, learning how to curve their fingers to hold whatever it is they are going to chop. They already know how to properly lift a lid and hold a knife (and they went home to tell their parents they were doing it wrong). They’ve made Hodge Podge Porridge, applesauce, guacamole, and fruit salad. Today they are going to make a hot lunch.

Barb speaks slowly and clearly and asks them to open their workbooks to the recipe. “Today,” she says, “we are making minestrone. Minestrone means big soup. What’s big about it?”

The response, “It’s longer.”

“How many vegetables?” The students call out every number from eight to eighteen.

That begs the question, “What is a vegetable?” And so the lesson begins.

From a tray that holds the soup ingredients, Barb picks up an onion. She dons onion goggles to wear while chopping, and tells them why it is a bulb vegetable. She cuts the flavour-makers—sage and rosemary—and smells her fingers afterwards. Barb demonstrates using all the senses when cooking. (And in case you didn’t know, zucchini is a fruit vegetable because it has seeds, just like a tomato.)

She holds up a squat metal scraper. “Fred,” the kids cry out. Yes, Barb even names the tools.

Barb rips the Swiss chard and purple kale, both leaf vegetables, with the best tool in the kitchen. “Your hands!” the kids yell out.

“And how will you tell when it’s done?” Again, the kids answer together, “Taste it!” And Barb whispers, “The chef’s favourite part.” The parent volunteers smile.

As the kids begin working as a team to make the soup, Barb listens for the kids to say to each other, “I’ll help.” The program is all about we.

Barb’s resume includes employment at the Four Seasons Hotel, teaching at UBC’s Faculty of Education, chef’s training at Dubruille, resident chef at York House school (where she integrated cooking lessons with grades one to six curriculum), and developing life skills cooking programs at high school level.

It was during a celebration luncheon where the high school students cooked for parents and teachers after their week of cooking that Barb noticed how proud the kids were. She wondered how to take this project and package it so every school could benefit.

She knew she would target grade four and five students for several reasons. They have the motor and cognitive skills to do it and, because their eating habits are set by age 12, this is the time to instill skills and attitudes toward preparing and eating healthy food.

Barb, passionate about the power of teaching and food, started Project CHEF as a pilot program with the Vancouver School Board in November 2007. In February 2008 she brought the program to 19 schools, weaving different aspects of the program into the school curriculum to deepen learning. By the end of the 2009 school term, Project CHEF had reached 1700 children and their families.

It’s not been easy. In most schools there’s the obstacle of finding power and hauling hot water, as well as carrying all the equipment and portable electric burners up flights of stairs. Sometimes, the electrical cords run from the library down the hall, all taped to the floor and walls. Somehow, she transforms a classroom into a kitchen for a week.

When she’s not in the classroom or preparing lessons, Barb writes grants to raise the money to carry out the program. The community has responded with what Barb calls a huge embrace. All of 2008/2009 sponsors, such as Chefs’ Table Society of BC, Les Dames d’Escoffier, and Telus have increased their funding for next year. But there are challenges. Despite the momentum and the fact that the project does impact children’s food choices, funding has to be negotiated every year. Barb would like to see sustainable funding.

And even though more schools are applying, Barb is limited to the number of weeks she can deliver the program. Demand exceeds availability. She can only do so much on her own.

Help does come in the form of volunteers (last year there were 700 parent volunteers and 80 community volunteers), in-kind food, and space to store supplies (so she doesn’t have to shop on weekends to restock for the following week).

Grant money sponsored a field trip to Yaletown, where two classes visited restaurants and interviewed chefs. The students looked for Fred, inquired about the equipment, asked where they bought their food, and where they learned to cook. At the Hamilton Street Grill, the chef brought out a pig and explained how it is used from head to toe. After telling them how he made chorizo sausage, he then served them pasta with the sausage. Another field trip took the students on a scavenger hunt at IGA Marketplace.

“A mother grabbed me in the hall one day and thanked me,” Barb says. “She told me she now has to buy grains for porridge and apples for applesauce.” Another mother told her that since her daughter participated in the program she’s taken over the kitchen.

That’s why Barb continues to write grants and proposals. One mother volunteers even though she doesn’t have a child in the class, because she learns from Barb how to explain techniques to her young sons.

Jacquie, the mother of two sons, says, “My younger son came home from school and said, ‘we gotta get a melon baller and a Fred’ and then his older brother asked him what he was going to do with them.”

One day, as Barb made her way to a school office, a boy was sitting in the hall. “Chef Barb,” he yelled, “I made stir-fry for my whole family.”

When the minestrone soup is ready, the kids sit down with their teacher at the table to enjoy their effort. The table is set, flowers grace the centre. Here they practise table manners and conversation—forgotten or unlearned skills for many. The teachers enjoy this part as much as the kids do. They watch the students become confident, capable, and efficient. They notice that kids start thinking about community and the environment and begin to look critically at what they are eating and how it is prepared.

Open mind, open mouth. That’s Barb’s mantra. “You can’t tell kids how to eat healthy, you have to show them how to make healthy food choices, and once you do, they are empowered to do it themselves.”

In the written evaluations, kids tell her that “food feels more important to me now” and “it changed my cooking life.” One child said they’d never had fruit salad before.

As the kids begin to clean up and wash dishes, they break into song.

If you are interested in bringing this program to your school, or want to donate (a tax receipt can be issued), contact Barb Finley at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 604-733-1769. www.projectchef.ca

Editor’s note: the photos for this story were taken in August at the Northwest Culinary Academy, where Barb was teaching the Now You’re Cooking day camp.

Inspired by the West Coast’s bountiful supply of fresh food, Arlene Kroeker writes about food for the body and the soul. As a designer and traveller, she’s forever searching for the interested and interesting. Her daughter says she thinks too much, and that’s okay, as long as it’s about what’s for dinner.