In 2020, we (being Divine Pies) learned by baking in a local commisary kitchen, that a lot of food was being provided via Food Banks during the Covid pandemic. Also at that time, Home for New Beginnings had just recieved a grant from United Way of Yavapai County and an intern from NAU's Americorps program. It was during that time that we noticed with all of this amazing food being provided, NOBODY knew how to prepare it! Adults let alone children. It was then that we (with the help of our intern), created our Garden to Table Cooking program for children.
We developed this program to instill back into children the basics of cooking as well as preparing a career in the food industry.
Since October of 2022, we have had over 400 active youth in our cooking program! Some have even gone as far as obtaining their food handler's card & retain a job in our Divine Pies kitchen!
Now that we also have a garden in association with our cooking class, everything is coming full circle of our vision to better educate Verde Valleys' children!