Paul Dahm is executive director of Brainfood (brain-food.org), a nonprofit group that teaches culinary skills in a way that helps District high school students far beyond the kitchen. The program began a decade ago and operates out of two churches, one in Chinatown, the other in Columbia Heights.
What does your organization do?
We use food and cooking as the tools to teach life skills and healthy living to teens in Washington. Kids attend class after school two times a week for 2 1/2 hours, and we also run a six-week summer program that meets five days a week.
What kind of cooking do they learn?
This week they are learning about Japanese foods. Last week they did Ethiopian food. They decide during the year and it varies. We bring in guest chefs and they might come in with a whole salmon and carve it up and show how to fillet the salmon and how to cook it five different ways. It’s all about exposure to experiences they wouldn’t normally have.
How do you find kids for the program?
We enroll 100 students in the after-school program. Last year we had 240 applicants. We could open two more kitchens, easily.
How does cooking teach life skills?
Our goal at the most basic level is to give them a safe place where they can be themselves, make mistakes, and be around supportive peers and supportive adult role models. The next step is to give them a recipe as simple as a chocolate cookie, and the student has to read, has to do simple math and measurements, has to work as a team, has to follow directions and has to manage time. The most important thing we do is change expectations. We all unfortunately have low expectations for youth living in the District’s struggling neighborhoods and troubled schools. Out goal is to not fall into that trap.
How did you end up at Brainfood?
I love food and I love to cook and literally stumbled across a listing on a Web site that said they were looking for an executive director. It is the hardest and the most fun job I have ever had.
