Safe Food Focus: A Girl Scout Gold Award Project by Kaylan Christensen
The Real Magic is Being Safe with Your Food!
The goal of Safe Food Focus is to help teachers, parents, and community leaders educate children on safe food practices.  Each lesson on this site has been developed to engage a variety of age levels.  They are designed to teach kids basic, but essential, food prep skills that they can use to better their family's lives.
The Mission
To Help Kids From All Backgrounds Learn Safe Food Practices
This project is useful for all students, but it is specifically catered to disadvantaged and impoverished students. I was inspired to do this project when I heard about the food pantry at James E. Moss Elementary. The children in that community who need extra resources like the food pantry come from families that are struggling to even make ends meet. Their parents are often immigrants who are working multiple jobs just to make ends meet. Because of this, many students are responsible to prepare meals for themselves and their family. The difficulty is that many of those children lack the skills and understanding to do so. Unsafe kitchen practices can lead to injury and illness which definitely affects kids, keeps them from doing their best in school, and has a long term impact on their family and community.
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I created this project so that teachers, community leaders, parents, and students could all access resources to help kids and families gain a knowledge of kitchen safety. All kids should be able to have access to safe, healthy food. The Hocus Pocus Safe Food Focus series and lesson plans help make that easy and approachable.
Lesson Plans
Each lesson below is formatted to be highly adaptable and can be used for any K-6 classroom. There are a variety of activities that can be adapted to any size group making it useful for not only the traditional classroom, but individual families or community groups too!
Simply click the embedded link to be taken to a page with the full resources for each lesson. You can also check out our Youtube page to find all the videos in a convenient playlist.
Lesson One
Hand Washing
Handwashing is so important to keeping kids safe in the kitchen! In this lesson, you’ll learn when, why, and how we wash our hands. There is a super cool experiment in this lesson, so check it out!
Lesson Two
Heat Safety
There are many hot things in the kitchen. This lesson teaches how to safely use toasters, ovens, microwaves, and stoves.
Lesson Three
Storing Food Safely
What needs to be stored in the fridge? In this lesson, we learn about perishables and refrigerator safety as well as the danger zone.
Lesson Four
Knife Safety and Cross-Contamination
Knives are extremely dangerous! This lesson teaches kids how to properly hold and use knives as well as how to prevent cross-contamination! Make sure you check out the interactive powerpoint for some magical fun!
Lesson Five
Raw Meat and Egg Safety
Meat needs to be handled with care. In this lesson, the kids learn the importance of being careful with raw meat and eggs.
About Me
Hi, I'm Kaylan Christensen from Girl Scout Troop 430 in South Jordan, Utah. I have been a Girl Scout for 13 years and I love it! I have been a member, vice president, and president of our multi-level scout troop. I love helping teach the younger girls in our troop. I was able to use my dance skills at the National Girl Scout Convention in Salt Lake City. I also served as an Oquirrh Community Delegate to the Utah Girl Scout Council for three years and was honored to be awarded the Cornelia Benton Scholarship. I chose to do this project for my Gold Award because I have a love of nutrition and kids. I am planning to study dietetics and nutrition at BYU following my 18-month mission to the Philippines for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
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I have 11 siblings in my family, and even though they're a little crazy at times, I love them to pieces. I just graduated from Bingham High School where I worked in Bingham's Mini Miner Preschool for two years. I was involved in FCCLA, Cupcake Club, National Honor Society, South Jordan Youth City Council, and Girl Scouts. Sometime during all that, I also earned my Associates Degree from Salt Lake Community College. I love dancing, photography and film, reading, writing, cooking, and baking. I am so excited about this project! Thank you for supporting me!
Contact
Want to learn more about Safe Food Focus, our video library, and the latest updates? Don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Check us out on Youtube for more fun extras!
