CookCamp is an intensive offsite culinary training for school cooks with hands-on follow-up and ongoing network support. Through over 20 years of work, we know that increasing scratch-cooked, plant-forward, and culturally-inclusive meals on cafeteria menus is not possible without investing in the hardworking school food professionals who make it happen.
During CookCamp, school cooks prepare recipes from their district menus while honing critical culinary skills and learning the why behind our work. As such, we include core WITS programming such as FIT BITS and demonstrations of WITS Labs and WITS BITS, modeling the lessons we teach to children. We offer a variety of lessons, all adapted to our districts’ individual needs.
CookCamp Spotlight: KIPP Texas – Austin
In Austin, we’ve partnered with KIPP Texas Public Schools and their food service director Naima Brown to transform school meals for over 3,000 students through our CookCamp model, with WITS Chefs leading culinary skill training using district menus to expand scratch-cooked offerings and emphasize the why of our work.
Our summer CookCamp in Austin brought together 35 incredible school cooks who learned knife skills, best practices for storing extra food during school breaks, and how to prepare scratch-cooked bread, rolls, and gluten free offerings. Without our dedicated school cooks, bringing more scratch-cooked, plant-forward, and culturally inclusive meals would not be possible, which is why WITS is committed to developing the next generation of school meal leaders in Austin and districts nationwide.