Healthy Futures, Youth Driven: Chef on NSTEP + Youth Health Champions
Details
Southern Alberta
The Idea
This project engages youth leadership through interactive presentations and student-driven learning about nutrition and physical activity. Beginning with NSTEP’s core community program (Chef), youth participants are offered volunteer opportunities and access to our certificate program to deepen their knowledge. With mentorship, they will establish and lead Club NSTEP initiatives in their schools and communities, focusing on topics like healthy eating, brain health, and wellness events.
The core program, Chef on NSTEP, is an evidence-based education program designed to empower children and youth with the knowledge, skills, and hands-on preparation of healthy, unprocessed foods. This education program utilizes evidence-based strategies to enhance understanding of the role nutrition and physical activity play in lifelong healthy habits. Chef on NSTEP is a series of three 2-hr in-person interactive food preparation, safety and cooking sessions. Our goal is to reach the same children with three Chef sessions so we can build on the kitchen skills and NSTEP education they learn each week. Recipes become more complex as participants learn different kitchen skills in hopes that at the end of 3 sessions these participants have the necessary skills to prepare healthy unprocessed foods at home. The program and recipes are adapted to accommodate the participants and communities, including providing translated resources and culturally appropriate recipes. At each session, various healthy habits are addressed including physical activity, sleep, screentime, and the importance of social connection. As well, we give participants guidelines for the amount of physical activity and sleep we need each day to stay healthy. Group settings foster engagement and support social connections, encouraging behavior change. This model is based on the 2024 experience with a high school youth who attended summer Chef and now can lead Chef on NSTEP.
This program goes beyond just Chef on NSTEP in that we will mentor and support Youth Health Champions to get hands-on leadership experience by building Club NSTEP at their school or leading Chef on NSTEP in the community. Adding this component to the Chef program allows NSTEP to create Youth Health Champions to share our important health messaging and reach even more Calgarians every year. NSTEP would pay these health champions an honorarium for participating in this program.
Who Will Benefit?
Last spring (2025/26 school year), NSTEP delivered Chef on NSTEP: How to Build a Healthy Lunch to 120 grade 7 students at Bishop Kidd school in Calgary. Along with the cooking component, NSTEP taught these students about teen brains and the healthy habits they can adapt as their teen brain develops. Several students from this program were excited about the NSTEP education they received and showed interest in a Club NSTEP for the 2026/27 school year. Funds from Field Law would go towards building a grade 8 Club NSTEP with the students that received NSTEP Chef + Teen Brain last spring. As these youth already have the fundamental knowledge, we can guide and mentor them into becoming Youth Health Champions for their school so they can spread NSTEP education throughout the entire school and their community. Funds would also allow NSTEP to work with the Grade 7’s at another school and teach Chef +Teen Brain in the spring of 2027.
The primary target group for Chef on NSTEP is children and youth that are at risk due to food scarcity and lower household income. Specifically, for this project, NSTEP will build on the successful launch of Chef + Teen Brain at Bishop Kidd School and offer Chef on NSTEP to other schools grade 7 classes. We will use our connections with Calgary Bridge Foundation for Youth to determine the best school for this project. The target group for the Youth Health Champion component of the program will include youth, aged 14-25, from low-income, newcomers to Canada or marginalized populations. We will target the grade 8 youth from Bishop Kidd for Club NSTEP at this school as they have already received NSTEP education last school year. These youth are then equipped to become health ambassadors to their families and communities in sharing their learnings and creating greater change.