23 Apr Farm to Table: Nutrition In Our Homes
Children of Hope take nutrition very seriously. It is part of our mission to help our children lead healthy and balanced lifestyles, and part of that is providing healthy and nutritious meals. We strive to provide a balanced diet for all of our children so they can grow strong and healthy.
A Typical Day of Nutrition
At both our Kikuyu and Kitalale homes, eating is a sociable and enjoyable part of our day. It’s an opportunity for our children to learn about the importance of a balanced meal, as well as help out our talented cooks and learn skills themselves.
Let’s dive into what a typical day of nutrition looks like in our homes…
Breakfast
Our breakfasts are typical of a Kenyan family. We usually have tea and bread for breakfast, which is occasionally supplemented with either a fried or boiled egg, sausage, or groundnuts with fresh fruit depending on the season. A sausage and egg sandwiched between bread is definitely a favorite amongst our children. For our bundles of joy who are too young for this breakfast, the Aunties prepare a breakfast of either mashed potato, pumpkin, or butternut squash in milk.
On school days, our cooks usually start preparing from 4:30am in order to feed the children before they hit the road for school. On the weekends, it’s a little more relaxed and we usually start our day with breakfast around 6:30am.
Lunch
At both of our homes, lunch varies depending on what’s on the menu for the day. Each meal consists of protein, carbohydrates, and vegetables. During the week, meals are prepared by our talented chefs at both homes. Weekend meal times can differ slightly within each home. In Kikuyu, the Mums or housefather, as well as the children make their own food in their individual cottages. Our 3 cottages each have a kitchenette which helps our children learn to cook and experience a bond as a small family within their cottage. We look forward to implementing this in our Kitalale home very soon. A lunchtime favorite has got to be the chicken and vegetable stew with chapati!
Dinner
Like lunch, our dinner menu varies each day, incorporating the main food groups. Sometimes, our cooks throw in a surprise meal at dinner. One of the children’s favorite surprise meals is fish. We test the children’s patience as they separate bones from the Tilapia. On the evenings that our cooks decide to surprise the children, we never have a plate to scrape… every last bit is eaten!
Serving delicious and nutritious meals to our children.
Snacks
In between meals, the children enjoy groundnuts, porridge, boiled eggs, fresh fruit, and milk.
Meet Our Chefs
We wanted to take this opportunity to shine a light on our talented chefs and give thanks to them for providing our children and staff with nutritious meals each and every day.
Chefs at Our Kikuyu Home
- Wycliffe Likano: Wycliffe is quiet and wears a warm smile. He is very neat in the kitchen and also very fast at preparing meals. Our children love his mandazi, which is deep-fried wheat dough. If you’re intrigued to see what it tastes like, try this recipe.
- Carolyne Nekesa: Carolyne is a great cook. She’s very friendly to the children and she loves to teach them her finest cooking skills. Children love her meat stews and more so a stew made from fish fingerlings locally known as ‘omena’.
- Kepha Onserio: Kepha is our head chef and a great leader here in Kikuyu. Kepha makes the most delicious vegetable stew! He is the one with a great creative mind and he cooks tasty foods. His eye for detail and perfection means he spends long days in the kitchen. Whenever we have guests, Kepha never fails to impress them with his amazing culinary skills. People always remember his food! He is a great inspiration to the children who want to pursue cooking as a career.
Our Kitalale Chefs
- Joseph Chine: Joseph is a great team player and always available to lend a helping hand whenever needed. Joseph makes the best brewed Kenyan tea, known here as ‘chai’.
- John Kamau: John is a quiet, and excellent chef. His chicken is a favorite amongst our children. He loves playing music on the radio while working in the kitchen.
- James Lucheri: James is the head chef in our Kitalale home and he makes the best chapati! He plays a great father figure to the boys who love hanging out with him whenever he has some free time on his hands. James is a softly spoken gentleman and a wonderful leader. He always inspires his team to greater heights of excellence.
Cooking Show
As a fun way to come together as a family and test our cooking, teamwork, and creativity skills, we created a cooking show at our Kikuyu home! The food, laughter, and stories that came out of the competition were brilliant and we’re excited to showcase our talented children in our cooking show blog!