Food Literacy Center
@FoodLiteracyCenter
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Only 4% of kids eat the recommended servings of vegetables a day and 40% of kids in Sacramento are obese. Low intake of vegetables in childhood is linked to health problems throughout the lifespan, including obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Our objectives are to improve low-income children's knowledge, attitude, and behavior toward healthy eating to prevent childhood obesity and other diet-related health problems. We teach weekly 45-minute food literacy classes delivered over 14 weeks in afterschool programs where we rotate children through our cooking and nutrition program. In our classrooms, students learn fruit and vegetable appreciation, how to read a recipe, cooking skills - and they have fun. We are unique in that we use positive reinforcement, getting kids excited about fruits and vegetables through culturally appropriate recipes and hands-on activities.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Food Literacy Education
Food Literacy Center provides free food literacy education targeting children in low income elementary schools. We teach twice weekly online food literacy classes in response to the COVID-19 crisis with our cooking and nutrition program. Pre-COVID-19, we were delivering classes in schools, and we plan to do so again once schools are reopened. Students taste fruits and vegetables, learn how to read and cook from a recipe — and they have fun! These classes and activities benefit the children we serve by teaching them the habit of eating their vegetables, which helps prevent diet-related diseases in this high-risk audience. Maintaining good health is more important than ever as we are isolated at home.
In our program, students learn fruit and vegetable identification, how to read nutrition labels, cooking skills – and they have fun! We use positive reinforcement to get kids excited about fruits and vegetables. We cook culturally appropriate recipes and integrate hands-on STEM-based activities. Our students learn and explore health education and nutrition through science experiments, recipes, and real-world projects, like making recipes and planting food from seeds that demonstrate academic subjects such as science and math. Studies show that students who practice what they’re learning in a hands-on environment can often retain three and a half times as much as opposed to just sitting in a lecture and listening.
We are unique in that we use positive reinforcement, getting kids excited about fruits and vegetables through culturally appropriate recipes, and hands-on activities. Our objectives are to improve children's knowledge, attitude and behavior toward healthy eating to prevent childhood obesity and other diet-related health problems.
We improve kids' knowledge toward healthy foods through hands-on lessons covering topics such as fiber, sugar, and fruit and vegetable appreciation. Through our STEM-based food literacy curriculum, students learn the difference between a fruit and a vegetable, where food comes from, how to read and cook recipes and nutrition labels, and learn new vocabulary.
We improve kids' behavior toward healthy foods through hands-on weekly cooking lessons where students learn basic cooking skills - like grating and measuring, and how to make recipes they can replicate at home with their families. Research indicates that cooking is the fastest method to improving kids' food literacy and consumption of fruits and vegetables. In the classroom, students learn simple ways to integrate fruits and vegetables into their diets, like swapping jelly for fresh fruit slices in their peanut butter sandwiches. All of our lessons are being rolled out online and made available for free to meet the needs of children who are out of school during the COVID-19 crisis.
Where we work
Awards
Snail of Approval Award 2014
Slow Food Sacramento
Snail of Approval Award 2014
Slow Food Sacramento
Snail of Approval Award 2014
Slow Food Sacramento
Capital Region's 10 Most Inspiring Nonprofits 2015
Kamere & Comstock's Magazine
Public Health Innovator 2016
California Department of Public Health
Floyd Farms Owner/Operator 2016
Sacramento City Unified School District
National AmeriCorps Award 2016
Administered by California Volunteers and sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Se
Public Health Innovator 2017
California Department of Public Health
Food Hero Uprooting Conventional Attitudes About Food 2017
Food Tank: The Food Think Tank
California Nonprofit of the Year 2018
Assemblymember Kevin McCarty and California Association of Nonprofits
External reviews

Photos
Videos
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Our major goals include reducing childhood obesity and improving healthy eating habits among low-income children and supporting community development that sustains healthy food choices in communities of highest need. We want kids to have fun and develop the love for healthy food that creates a lifetime of healthy habits.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
We provide 14-weeks of food literacy education to low-income elementary students during after-school programs. We aim to add two new schools every year.
We train community members as food literacy instructors. We aim to train 10-15 food geniuses annually.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Food Literacy Center was founded in 2011 in response to a local gap in the food movement: public education about how the food system affects health, environment, and the economy. Founding Executive Director, Amber Stott, has 16 years of nonprofit management experience and holds numerous local and national awards for her work in the food movement. Since starting the organization, she has advanced food literacy programming from one pilot school serving 120 students per week to eight schools 800 students per week over the course of nine years.
In September 2012, Amber worked with Assemblymember Roger Dickinson to declare September as Food Literacy Awareness Month in California. In 2013, Yolo County, Sacramento County and City of Sacramento also passed our resolution. In addition to five staffs, Food Literacy Center has over 100 community volunteers and 145 certified Food Geniuses.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Accomplished:
Food Literacy Center increased programming from one pilot school serving 120 students per week to eight schools serving 800 students per week over the course of seven years. In the last year, we saw the following positive changes in knowledge, attitude, and behavior of food literacy students:
After receiving 14-week of food literacy education:
• 90% of students tasted new fruits and vegetables (taste education)
• 79% of students reported going home and asking for the fruits and vegetables they used in class (advocacy)
• 70% of students demonstrated positive attitudes toward healthy food (attitude change)
After making one of our signature recipes in class, fourth grader Estella beamed, "I went home and made the salad with my mom!" This is behavior change! We are changing kids' attitude, knowledge and behavior toward healthy eating.
Additional successes include reaching over 20,000 kids through summer reading programs in 28 library branches. We continue to provide monthly food literacy in these libraries.
We now have 110 trained Food Geniuses. In addition to trained Food Geniuses, Food Literacy Center has more than 100 active volunteers who logged 20,231 volunteer hours in 2017, an in-kind value of $588,520.00 to our organization. These volunteers and interns deliver programming weekly alongside our Food Geniuses, enabling us to have a low student to teacher ratio and provide high-quality food literacy education.
Haven't accomplished: We want to fine-tune our evaluation tools to better meet the needs of our program.
Financials
Unlock nonprofit financial insights that will help you make more informed decisions. Try our monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights?
Learn more
about GuideStar Pro.
Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Food Literacy Center
Board of directorsas of 02/25/2021
Sarah Modeste
KMP Strategies
Term: 2020 - 2021
Amber Stott
Food Literacy Center
Erin Alderson
Naturally Ella
Erik Johnson
Sacramento Area of Council of Governments
Stacey Kauffman
Entercom
Tawney Lambert
Sacramento City Unified School District
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
-
Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data