Six new classes offered by Buckeye Food Alliance teach knife skills, proper sanitation and healthy meal preparation. Courtesy: Cameron Carothers

Through its series of six cooking and food safety classes — all free of charge — to Ohio State students, the Buckeye Food Alliance aims to educate students about healthy meals and eating habits they can replicate themselves. 

According to the Student Health Center website, the Buckeye Food Alliance is an equal opportunity provider operating a client-choice food pantry. The pantry has worked to provide students in need with food since 2016 and is now expanding its services to include cooking classes — including kitchen safety, knife skills and using spices — until Dec. 8. This is the first time it is offering cooking classes, with 15 spots each.

BFA coordinator Nick Fowler said the cooking classes — which began Thursday — supplement the functions of the food pantry.

“There have been times I’ve been working with a student, you know, they’ll come in and we’ve got, like, beautiful, freshly-picked zucchini, and it gets left behind,” Fowler said. “Cause it seems like, ‘Well, if I took that, I wouldn’t quite know what to do with it.’ And so I think these classes are a way to, you know, help empower students and improve their skills in the kitchen.”

The course is led by Michael Carnahan and Cameron Carothers, senior culinary educators at the James Cancer Hospital.

Carnahan said the goal of the classes is to promote healthier eating habits. 

“One of our main focuses and our main objectives is to teach people about nutrition and more plant-based forward meals and just trying to get more vegetables into people,” Carnahan said. “So, we’re just trying to bring awareness to vitamins and nutrients and cancer-reducing vegetables.”

Carothers, a registered dietician, said in an email the pantry still tries to keep the classes as accessible as possible while emphasizing healthy ingredients and cooking techniques.

“These classes are intended to serve a student population that may be experiencing food insecurity,” Carothers said. “We have tailored the classes to use common pantry items and to be flexible to meet any budget, dietary needs or time constraint.”

Emma Lazor, a fourth-year in medical dietetics and treasurer of BFA, said in an email the resources are made available to students for free due to outside grants and funding.  

“BFA is lucky to have so much support from organizations around the Columbus area and other people who believe in our mission that ‘No Buckeye Goes Hungry,’” Lazor said. “Through these donations and support, we are able to provide free groceries and personal hygiene products to any OSU student and offer extra programs like the cooking classes at no cost.”

Before the first class Thursday, Carnahan said he and Carothers led a volunteer session called Intro to the Kitchen to test run the course in which students made vegetable soup and whole wheat carrot cake cupcakes.

“It was almost a perfect hour, and we actually had a little time afterwards,” Carnahan said. “Some students stayed after to sit down and eat a meal with us — what we made — or some students just took it home,” Carnahan said.

During the Healthy Cooking Methods class Thursday, students made pan fajitas and pico de gallo. Carnahan said they also covered food safety, sanitation and basic knife skills, which the instructors go over at the beginning of each class.

Lazor said the classes help further BFA’s mission and will benefit students beyond what the pantry provides.

There are no remaining spots for any class at the time of publication. Fowler said there have been no additional courses scheduled after the sixth session Dec. 8, but he is hopeful more can be made available soon.

“If the funding presents itself, and the opportunities are there, we’d certainly love to and as long as it’s something that our students find valuable,” Fowler said.