Program Highlight: Cooking Club

Ben and Cooper preparing quesadillas in Cooking Club

GiGi’s Playhouse exists to change the way the world sees Down syndrome, and we believe that the best way to do that is to empower our friends with Down syndrome to change that themselves through their lives and example – to prove that their lives have value and meaning! Therefore, our Purposeful Programs are designed to equip them with the fundamental skills they need to achieve all that they desire to and to be their best of all.

One key skill that we love to impart to our participants is how to cook a healthy meal, and thanks to the work of some amazing volunteers and students from Belmont University’s Occupational Therapy department, we were thrilled to do that for 19 preteens, teens, and adults this past summer through our Cooking Club.

Cooking Club is designed to emphasize the importance of health and wellness through kitchen safety, food preparation, nutrition education, social activities and a shared meal. Under the guidance of volunteer program leaders, participants learn about and progress through skills including measurements, food handling, knife skills, ingredient identification, palette expansion, and nutrition. Participants are also introduced to various cooking techniques. Through all of this, the Cooking Club program builds participants’ self-esteem and self-confidence through nutrition and wellness!

Liam in his kitchen at home

It was so wonderful to see the self-esteem and self-confidence of our participants grow over the summer, and to see them begin to use the skills they were developing. Several parents shared pictures and stories about their kids putting what they were learning into practice at home, from things as simple as peeling bananas for a healthy snack or, in 10-year-old Liam’s case, cooking himself up some bacon on the stovetop.

Looking ahead to 2020, we are thrilled to grow the capacity of our Cooking Club to serve more families with this life-changing education. Thanks to the generosity of our friends at the Nashville Predators Foundation, we are working this fall to improve the amount and quality of our cooking equipment to create new ways for our participants to learn. And we are so excited to finally have a desperately-needed place to store this new equipment due to the kindness of our neighbors: the US Storage Centers of Brentwood, the new Official Storage Partner of GiGi’s Nashville!

It takes a village for GiGi’s Playhouse to continue serving the Nashville community, and we are so grateful to the people and organizations that make it all possible. The best is yet to come!

Special thanks to our partners: