Cooking Matters
Empowering Communities to Buy, Cook and Eat Good Food Every Day
Cooking Matters is a free, 6-week course that teaches food-insecure households how to buy, cook and eat nutritious meals on a budget—while celebrating the foods they know and love.
We continue to empower thousands of food-insecure families in the Bay to stretch their food budgets while making healthier, delicious meals—putting nutritious food within reach. By combining hands-on cooking practice with culturally sensitive nutrition education and take-home grocery bags, we help participants unlock their culinary creativity and maximize their food resources.
Our approach fosters increased confidence and peer support, leading to sustainable improvements in shopping, cooking, and eating habits. Participants emerge with enhanced skills to make the most of their available resources, often implementing long-lasting positive changes in their dietary practices.
Curriculum Highlights
- Learning about nutrition labels, food groups, and balanced eating
- Vegetables, whole grains, and fruits - making nutritious and delicious choices
- The impacts of sugar-sweetened beverages and the importance of water
- Grocery store tour and shopping trip with the class
- A collaboratively prepared meal enjoyed in community each class
“This class series has heightened my awareness of how important fresh fruits and vegetables are in our diets and how delicious healthy eating can be!” - Cooking Matters Participant
“This class series has heightened my awareness of how important fresh fruits and vegetables are in our diets and how delicious healthy eating can be!” - Cooking Matters Participant
Our Impact
- 78% of program participants reported increasing confidence in their ability to buy healthy foods for their families on a budget after the course.
- 79% of the program participants reported increasing confidence in their ability to cook healthy foods for their family on a budget after the course.
- 84% of Cooking Matters for Teens participants reported that they will share the information they learned in Cooking Matters classes with their family and friends
Teaching Team & Volunteers
Classes are facilitated by 18 Reasons staff, Peer Health Educators, and volunteers passionate about sharing their skills, love of good food, and home cooking. Many of our Peer Health Educators come from the same communities where our students live.
Peer Health Educator Spotlight
Our Peer Health Educator (PHE) program engages instructors who come directly from the communities we serve. With deep ties to their neighborhoods, PHEs bring lived experience that strengthens the impact of our programs. Through the program, we offer support and provide tools that enhance their ability to lead, teach, and inspire within their communities.
Where We Work - Partnerships and Host Sites
18 Reasons partners with organizations and host sites to bring our programs to their constituents. Partner organizations recruit students and provide teaching space while 18 Reasons provides the instructors, recipes, food, curriculum, and even a mobile kitchen with all the necessary equipment and tools. Students leave each class with a bag of groceries to continue learning at home.
Host partners include public schools, housing facilities, health and medical organizations, community centers, and other Community Based Organizations
Cooking Matters at the Store and Farmers Market
Cooking Matters at the Store is an interactive, guided grocery store tour that teaches teens and adults to make real changes to their food purchasing habits. 18 Reasons instructors and participants navigate the grocery store or farmer’s market together, pausing to practice reading nutrition labels, comparing unit prices, identifying whole grain products, and much more. As the tour concludes, participants put their new skills into practice and take home a booklet with recipes and shopping tips, $10 worth of groceries, and a reusable grocery bag!
Cooking Matters At The Store
- Teaches participants how to find whole grains, buy fruits and vegetables on a budget, compare unit prices, and read food labels
- Empowers shoppers with skills-based education to buy healthy and delicious food on a tight budget
- Equips families with the skills to maximize the benefits they receive through public nutrition programs like SNAP and WIC
A Cooking Matters at the Store tour is built into every 6-week long Cooking Matters series for adults and families, but we can also offer one-time, stand-alone tours. In addition to grocery stores, we offer Cooking Matters at the Farmer’s Market tours. Farmer’s Market tours highlight eating seasonally and locally, reducing food waste, and introducing participants to programs such as Market Match that help families stretch SNAP dollars further.
Event Days
An event day is a way to offer Cooking Matters at the Store tours to a large number of individuals (80 -100) on one day. These events can be held at a grocery store or at a community event as a pop-up. 18 Reasons will set up stations throughout the store and participants will pause at each station as they shop - learning more about identifying nutritious choices and saving money along the way. Upon completion, participants receive a $10 gift card and a reusable grocery bag.
If you’re interested in working with us to bring a Cooking Matters at the Store tour or event day or a Cooking Matters at the Farmer’s Market tour to your community or market, please fill in our form below.