During the quarantine, most of our grocery bills have increased as we shop for today and an uncertain future, packing our pantries with canned goods while also buying the usual fresh foods and snacks to keep our kitchens feeling normal. If your kids are anything like ours, now that they’re home around the clock, they are eating you out of house and home.
Since many of us are working from home full time, we’re preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner in our own kitchens nearly every day for the first time. Our Family Recipes section is filled with delicious and even easy-to-make recipes, but you might be ready to pass on some of your cooking burden to your always-hungry kids.
To help parents get kids excited about cooking at home, the kids’ culinary subscription kit Raddish Kids gave away 50,000 kits for free in March. These culinary kits, which weave in math, science, language arts and culture for ages 4-14, offered access to free content, including an at-home cooking camp program, recipes kids can make with pantry staples and additional learning extensions across science, geography and language arts. And while Raddish Kids quickly “sold out” of the free kits, you can save $15 on a six-month membership or sign up for one of their free e-Kits at www.Raddishkids.com/SuddenlyHomeschooling, which comes with educational resources and activities for the kids.
“As a working mom, I know firsthand the impact that school closures have on families,” says Raddish Kids founder Samantha Barnes. “We hope these free kits are a helpful resource for parents and inspire family togetherness during this period of social distancing.”
The complimentary Raddish kit is called Swedish Eats, and celebrates traditions and flavors from Sweden. Geared toward kids in elementary and middle grades, the kit features three laminated illustrated recipe guides and includes a kid-size cooking tool, apron patch and fun learning activity. “The kitchen is the perfect place to cultivate academic skills like math, science, geography, culture, reading, among other subjects outside of the traditional classroom,” says Barnes who is a former educator as well as a mother who has homeschooled her kids. “Our kits weave in these subjects alongside key culinary skills that nourish the mind, expand the palate and empower kids in the kitchen and beyond.”
The restaurants and cafes that are still open (for takeout only) are hoping we continue to look to them to help feed our families, and some of them have been offering free kids’ meals to encourage families to place those orders. Hugo’s Restaurant in Studio City and West Hollywood, for example, is offering its full menu for curbside pickup or delivery, and has been doing a free kid’s menu since LAUSD closed, along with special meal kits.
If you or someone you know is having a difficult time feeding your family, visit One Degree for a list of resources, updated weekly, offering free meals and other services during this time.
In addition to main meals, Eric Oldfield, father of two school-age daughters and chief business officer of the education site Brainly, encourages us to have ready-to-grab nutritious snacks prepared so our kids don’t have to take disruptive breaks from schoolwork to rifle through the pantry or refrigerator to find something to eat. They still might use the kitchen as a source of distraction, but as we’re all still trying to figure this new world out, who can blame them?
