Who We Are

TasteWise Kids operates with a single goal in mind: to offer children fun ways to learn about food and inspire a lifetime of positive, healthy eating habits. We empower children of all ages to think about food in new ways, to explore their own sense of taste and to realize that flavorful, nutritious food and good health go together – naturally. As part of this work, students also benefit from seeing first-hand where food comes from and learning about the importance of agriculture and respecting their environment.

As Julia Child, the original Days of Taste^® spokesperson stated over 25 years ago, “In this age of fast and frozen foods, we want to teach school children about real food – where it is grown and how it is produced – so that they can develop an understanding and appreciation of how good fresh food is supposed to taste.”

Our Mission

TasteWise Kids inspires kids to explore and experience the world of food and its sources.

Our Organization

TasteWise Kids is a non-profit organization with a 501c3 status based in Baltimore. TasteWise Kids was established in December 2015. We see it as our job to inspire our next generation to make educated choices about the foods they eat today, so that they develop positive, healthy eating habits tomorrow.

We work with local chefs, farmers, and other food professionals to teach our students about where their food comes from, help them to explore their own sense of taste, and to discover the value of fresh food from multiple perspectives:

Health and nutrition
Agriculture and environmental stewardship
Career Awareness/Development
Culinary and preparing food to individual taste preference
Social aspects of eating with friends and family

In the 2020-2021 school year we served about 4,000 children in Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Howard County, and Harford County.

Why Us?

Consider the facts:

less than half of school-age children in Baltimore eat breakfast on a daily basis
38% of adolescents consume vegetables less than once daily
1 in 3 kids and teens eat fast-food in a given day
in the last 20 years, the percentage of overweight children has more than doubled.

Our Programs

We use hands-on experiences to teach kids about the world of food — where it comes from, why it tastes the way it does, and how to prepare it — which helps them discover what they like and inspires a lifetime of healthy eating habits.

We make this journey of discovery exciting, we keep it simple, and we follow three fundamental principles to make it happen:

Use your hands: We believe students learn best when they can explore actively and reach their own conclusions. Therefore, our programs are designed to teach new concepts and ideas through hands-on activities.
Ask An Expert: We believe there is no substitute for experts in their fields. That is why we invite local chefs, farmers, and other food professionals to help lead our programs.
Have fun: We believe that students learn the most when they're enjoying themselves. That's why we take a “food enthusiast’s” approach to our programs, focusing on all the senses, the excitement of trying new foods, and the pleasures of eating with family and friends.

We have four current programming areas:

Days of Taste program: 4th graders learn about the elements of taste and the journey of food from farm to table.
Community Programs: Our Food Story Times, Ask An Expert and other interactive educational programs help kids get excited about food. We also create and host fun, hands-on learning on a single topic related to food and healthy eating for after-school programs, reaction centers, and other community-based groups/organizations.
Exploring Foods: This intergenerational family kitchen skills series is customized to each community. The number of sessions, times, and types of recipes are planned with the community coordinators. During each session, a kitchen skill is highlighted and practiced along with a simple, seasonal recipe that families can try at home. Families prepare the recipe along with a food professional, and receive a recipe card, nutritional information, and substitution tips to take home. Sessions can include one pot meals, simple sauté, fun and healthy snacks, homemade dressings and salad, roasted veggies, and soups.
Every Day Is Earth Day: For lower elementary, the program includes a compost-themed story and a vermicompost learning and exploration session. Kids learn the full cycle of food from the earth where it grows, to the table, and back again. For upper elementary, students are introduced to urban garden design. Students work in groups to design creative urban garden spaces with their neighborhoods in mind, and then plant seeds to take home. We discuss how edible plants can be grown and harvested right in a window and in small, and vertical spaces.

Our DEI Commitment

At TasteWise Kids, we are committed to embracing and cultivating an environment where diversity, equity, and inclusion are prioritized across the communities that we reach through our programming and partnerships. Our commitment is reflected in our leadership and how we operate and communicate as an organization.

Our Impact

We are teaching kids about food — good food, real food, nutritious food — ultimately to spark new ideas and attitudes around their eating habits. And we are seeing positive changes in our students and families.

Recent outcome data from our programming: