PPS Cooks+Gardens was created in 2011 as an after-school seed-to-table program to address the demand for food-based programming after the old home economics class, “Modern Living,” was cancelled at the middle school. We first named the program JW Iron Chef, after a popular television cooking program, but eventually renamed it PPS Cooks+Gardens, to remove the competitive nature of the experience and to ensure that students, parents and administration understood its five-senses, hands-on empowering approach to food and the natural systems that support all life.
The program brings in chefs and guest chefs to teach students basic philosophy, safety, science and technique that goes into gardening, harvesting, prepping and cooking within planetary boundaries. It also celebrates the community of the table, with each of the teams, when time permits sharing results of their efforts with others.
The PSGC middle school program, oversubscribed from the start, helped inform the administration’s decision to return a for-credit food-oriented course to the school day in 2016, with Nyrie Janho as its part-time teacher.