Recipe Choice Forms
The Recipe Choice forms are a way to involve youth in planning the sessions. A forced-choice format provides structure that reflects goals of the cooking series while allowing youth some ownership of the experience. A variety of recipes can be selected to reflect the same goal and this flexibility allows the facilitator to consider limitations such as space and equipment.
Keeping recipe descriptions short and using pictures of foods increases visual appeal and usability with low-literacy groups. It may be helpful to talk about each recipe choice, although too much conversation can limit individual expression of preferences. Allowing each participant to complete a form places value on all opinions and limits peer influence and persuasion in decisions.
The Choice forms allow facilitators to involve youth in planning without requiring group consensus. When deciding what recipes to use, questions to consider include:
- What range of skills will be practiced?
- What variety of foods will be represented?
- Is at least one choice of each child represented?
An additional option to consider for the cooking series is whether to involve family or other invited guests in the last session. This could be a meal or other food theme. The foods prepared should be recipes used in previous sessions or recipes with similar skills. Engaging youth in planning an event is a strategy to celebrate both individual and group accomplishments and to extend the social context of sharing food.
Choice forms:
|
Cooking Up Fun!