Still Cooking: How Culinary Arts Programs Adapted to Remote Learning
Foundry10 partnered with educators to keep high schoolers learning the culinary arts from home.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, culinary arts programs suffered major setbacks. When in-person instruction became unsafe for students and teachers, the hands-on learning that makes culinary arts such an asset turned into a liability. Almost 60% of CTE administrators cited lower enrollment in their secondary and postsecondary CTE programs across interest areas in the 2020–2021 school year, according to a report by the Association for Career and Technical Educators (ACTE).
Engaging learners and providing hands-on opportunities was especially challenging for CTE educators teaching remotely. Since spring 2020, many CTE educators have designed and assembled take-home kits: supplies and equipment packaged and picked up by students or delivered to their homes. Once projects are completed, learners send photos or videos of their completed work to their teachers.
For culinary arts students who may have limited resources to purchase ingredients and access kitchen equipment like pans, knives, and measuring cups at home, take-home kits can be a great remote solution.
Because the Trades team at foundry10 knows from our research that CTE programs provide direct value for youth, we connected with local CTE educators, including culinary teachers, to find out how we could best support their take-home kit efforts and keep kids learning remotely.
Why are High School Culinary Arts programs important?
Culinary Arts CTE programs offer a wide array of opportunities for students to explore food preparation, specialization areas, management, business skills, and industry-related training.
Recent changes in Washington state graduation requirements provide students in the class of 2020 and beyond the option to meet state Math and English/Language Arts testing requirements by completing 2 credits within an approved CTE Pathway related to their goals and interests.
Outcomes for students who focus on CTE are strong. The average high school graduation rate for students concentrating in CTE is 95 percent, compared to a national adjusted cohort graduation rate of 85 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Additionally, students involved in CTE are far less likely to drop out of high school than other students.
Supporting Culinary Arts Programs During Remote Learning
We connected with the Career and Technical Education Specialist for Seattle Public Schools, who then connected us directly with culinary teachers. The teachers identified their classroom need, and foundry10 provided the funding for grocery store gift cards and other supplies to meet each student’s specific need.
The results were delicious:
We were also able to support virtual culinary internships through Feed the People for high school students who needed additional supplies and materials in order to complete their training. These programs served the dual benefit of supporting an educational experience as well as an opportunity to bring additional food home to families during the pandemic.
We are interested in learning more about how remote culinary learning can work in a hands-on, functional way for students. To connect with us about CTE pandemic learning, please email trades@foundry.org.
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