Culinary · Case study
Westridge Culinary Curriculum
A K–8 food-literacy curriculum adopted across 11 schools in one district.
- Partner
- Westridge Unified
- Location
- Denver metro, Colorado
- Duration
- School year · 2024–2025
- Reach
- 11 schools · 4,800 students
Outcomes
11
schools adopted curriculum
4,800
students reached
86
teachers trained
97%
teacher satisfaction
The challenge
Westridge had a strong school-meals program but no consistent food-literacy curriculum. They wanted something teachers could run without becoming chefs themselves.
What we built
- 1
Wrote 32 weekly lessons aligned to state science and health standards.
- 2
Trained 86 classroom teachers in a two-day summer institute.
- 3
Provided a $200 per-classroom pantry stipend and a shared equipment library.
- 4
Ran monthly office hours for teachers throughout the year.
What changed
The biggest unlock was making the curriculum teacher-proof — every lesson runs in 35 minutes with three ingredients and a single pan.
By spring, the district was sharing the curriculum with three neighboring systems. We're in conversations with two of them now.
"I was nervous to teach cooking. The lessons make it impossible to mess up."
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