Recommendations for the program

So... Tina has asked me to give feedback on the program so we can improve it in the next round. Here goes!

* Flow of kitchen sessions

It would be good to organise the kitchen sessions a bit better. That's not to say that they should be totally rigid, but I found that in some cases there were people that were left without something to do. As a result, some of the kids got bored, which isn't good for retention. It's something that's hard to do, but we need to do it better in the upcoming sessions (and in the next round of Koori Kitchen)

* Bottlenecks

I found that there is a big bottleneck with Nic. We usually had two groups going, with Nic organising one group and someone else with another group. This causes some problems, in that whoever's in charge of the second group of kids (and supervisors) needs to talk to Nic to find out what to do next. If there was a documented set of steps ( 1) cut up tomatoes, 2) wash lettuce, 3) cut meat), then we wouldn't have to annoy Nic to get info (when he's running around madly trying to make sure everything's working anyway!).

So... telling the supervisors what is required and the steps they need to take would be beneficial, I think. It also makes it look like we know what we're doing (even if we don't!). Another option would be to have the chef taking one group, and Nic the other. That might work, too.

* Celebrities

I thought having the celebrities there was good for the kids. They seemed to talk to them a little bit. I'm not sure how much of an incentive it was to come, though. Considering that we didn't advertise to the kids that they'd be there, it was also difficult. We really need some way of letting the kids know well in advance (earlier in the week) about who's going to be there, what we're cooking, etc. This might be someone going to the school during the week and talking for 5 minutes to the class, or an email, something...

* Involvement

I thought the results in recent weeks have been great. It's wonderful to see the kids grasping the concepts in the kitchen and wanting to get involved. I guess the hard part is getting them to trust you and making it fun so they come. The Zoo was a good introduction, but it would've been great to spend some more time there and perhaps get a better sense of how food is integral to the zoo.

* Opportunities

Given how young the program is, this has been hard, but it would be great to stress the opportunities that the kids can have by taking part in this program. Establishing some links with TAFE or Aunty Beryl's program would be an excellent way of doing this, so that kids can move into those programs if they want a future in cooking (or restaurant management, etc).

I think that's about it! Hopefully this will help make the program better in the remaining sessions and next year! Thanks for letting me be a part of it. :)

Jem