Community Collaborations

Teen Cuisine Coders is a special 4-H opportunity for youth in Beloit and Janesville. Our current participants are students at Beloit Learning Academy and Rock River Charter Schools.

They participate in hands on learning in their school sites AND engage with each other and community nutrition efforts (such as Nutrition Collaborative of Rock County) through virtual opportunities.

Youth Created Resources

Did you receive a food gift card? Did you give a grocery gift card? Do you want to set healthy goals for you or someone you care about?Explore youth created resources by the Teen Cuisine Coders of Beloit Learning Academy! If you use their suggestions, you will have the flexibility to change ingredient selections, use leftover ingredients and save great meals to eat later.

Too hungry to be creative? Need a solution made easy? Get motivated with this short video!

Now try. . .

• • Recommended recipes-These recipes are chosen by youth.

• • Sample shopping lists-These lists are based on the most common grocery gift card amount donated ($20). By using the list provided, you will be able to make all the recipes shown on the grocery list. (*Prices may vary from the time these lists were created).

• • Tips from youth-These recommendations help choose ingredients you like best and stay within the $20 budget.

Share this resource with someone else! Download our PDF flyer.

Youth already knew A LOT about what it means to eat healthy, such as choosing whole grains, adding a variety of fruits or vegetables and checking the amount of sugar and fat (even all their long and hard to spell names). BUT can it be good for you AND still taste good.We want YOU(th) to continue to add to what we know.

• • Leave a cooking or shopping tip in our Padlet.

• • Rate recipes we share.

Remember to always be safe in the kitchen.  You can find the answers to your Food Safety questions in FoodWIse Resources.

Explore All Fruit Recipes in our Snack Category–These are recipes selected by our youth leaders.Explore an Easy to Use Shopping List— These are shopping lists you can use to make multiple recipes. The items approximately total under $20 (the average grocery gift card donated)

Explore All Recipes in our Delicious Meals Category folder–These are recipes selected by our youth leaders. They are great to fill you up and to share!Explore an Easy to Use Shopping List— This folder contains shopping lists you can use to make multiple recipes that total under $20 (the average grocery gift card donated).

What do you think when you hear the word bear claw?  This new term kicked off our first session, and we never looked back.  (If you’re wondering, youth learned it’s not just an animal’s hand nor a sweet treat.  It’s actually a way to hold your onion safely while you cut.) Youth increased cooking skills with these recipes. Not sure what to choose. . . Start in this folder!On their way out the door each week, youth happily grabbed their own bags of ingredients to take with them.  Several were excited to prepare and share the dish immediately. Give the recipes we explored a try and challenge yourself to understand why they are smart choices using MyPlate.

More Resources Coming Soon! Keep checking back in November and December! We hope our experiences and questions provide useful answers for YOU(th)!

The Beloit School District promotes a gift card drive to support youth experiencing homelessness. Youth dedicated their time to soliciting gifts card donations during the month of November and attaching the QR code sticker that led you (our reader) here! When this project started, the partner organizations had one question. How can we support youth to choose healthy when receiving community support (i.e. gift cards)? In our Teen Cuisine Coders program, youth participants and youth participant leaders in our program developed the resources below to share their learning in words and images that speak directly to their classmates.