Karey Wilmott was once a frozen vegetable girl.
“I hate to admit that,” says Wilmott, mother of two daughters, Malea, 16, Madison and six.
“But now I love fresh vegetables and I definitely think about it in winning a cooking program.”
In its second year, Get Cooking is a non-profit program designed to support under-resourced families at four local schools (both Orange County Public Schools for Excellence, Ocoee Elementary, and both Evans and Jones High Schools), teaching budgets, shopping and family dinners of four for under $20.
Since the programme began in March 2024, approximately 800 families have benefited, teaching virtual cooking classes from the College of Hospitality and Culinary Arts in Valencia.
Participants like Wilmott are enthusiastically looking forward to what they are learning and eating when they pick up a bag filled with groceries and find out what they are going to make.
Materials and other operating costs are thanks to sponsors such as Kroger Delivery, 4roots Farm, Florida Blue, and Orlando Magic. The recipe is courtesy of Orlando Local Chef. This year’s attendees include Wendy Lopez, a partner of Reyes Mezcaleria (and soon sparrow) chefs, foreign restaurant Bruno Fonseca, and Matt Hinckley, the flashy meat from Hinckley.
It’s Florida’s most famous chef, and in fact, Norman Van Eken helped Stacey Archer bring the program to Orlando last year. But it’s not the white taybros dishes that bring to the table.
“Everyone returns to his roots,” says Van Eken.
Van Eken recruits local chefs to teach healthy food on a budget
Certainly, Lopez has created fish stews from Mexico’s Puer Colojo, Fonseca, Moqueca, and his native Brazil.
“They think about what their families ate and what their ancestors’ dishes. In Italy, they say “cucinia is poor.” “In Latin and the Caribbean, that’s the same thing. They’re known for doing what they have, not where they’re known for their outrageous ingredients.”
And what you have when you pick it up and get in your bag is very impressive.
“I didn’t expect to get that much!” she says. She missed several live streams since the program began. Literally, all the ingredients are provided. If the recipe requires boiling water, participants will find water in a bag to take home.
“In many cases, we don’t know if families have access to clean water. They may have been turned off because they can’t pay their bills, especially in the area of titles like ours. That’s really important.”
Archer, a single mother of three, understands the difficulty of having a delicious meal at the table. Food costs have been increasing recently, especially recently.
“Everyone is feeling the pain of the cash register and we are trying to help families grow their budget,” she says. “Recipes are designed that way, and often don’t just feed the family that night. Often there are leftovers. There are leftover ingredients. That’s an extra bonus, and you learn to reuse the ingredients and create different dishes with leftovers.”
Jesus Mayoral Salinas, a junior at Jones High School, will tell you the trajectory.
“I live in the house with my four siblings and my mother,” says the 17-year-old. “It was enough to feed us all.”
Mayor Salinas, who has heard of cooking in leadership classes, loves cooking.
“My mother cooks a lot, so I thought I could surprise her and make something before I got home.”
He missed the first two live streams, but instead chased the recipe cards to make meatloaf and Fonseca moqueka. “…it was like fish soup and had rice…it was a bit stylish and really good” – he recently managed to make one of the group zooms led by Olive Garden’s Executive Chef Take.
“We saw how we cooked and learned about the origins of diet,” said Mayal Salinas. “They gave us step-by-step and we also had a paper at the instructions, but if you were behind, you could ask for help.
Takes, who began his tenure as Olive Garden cooking manager in 2008, felt the same way.
“The experience was fantastic. There were about 80 students on the phone and they were very engaging and asked very inspiring questions about food and making my career journey.
Mayor Salinas’ excitement was clear. He sent out some photos of the meals he had not been adopted around 9pm on the evening of class.
“This is the food!” he wrote, noting that it was late and should be asleep. “It was delicious.”
His favorite is that he has so far enjoyed everything the program has literally brought to his table.
Last year’s coconut curry chicken, the recipe by executive chef Clay Miller of Ravenous Pig, was a unanimous favorite of the Willmot family.
“I learned a lot about doing classes,” says Wilmott.
It also gives us a kind of time, as well as the opportunity to sit and eat together as a family.
Interest in the programme was initially slow burns, but word of mouth spread. Now there’s a waiting list.
Archer said repeat participants reported cooking dinners at home on an average of 3.5 times a week, from 1.4 to 1.4. Meanwhile, fast food consumption is declining.
“There’s demand,” she says. “And with more support, we can afford (and meet that) more meal kits.”
They hope to achieve their goal of serving 100 families a month by the end of the year.
A eager to participate, Takes said he could see his younger self reflected on the phone in many students.
“We know exactly what food insecurity is,” he said. “I grew up with it and saw it firsthand when I traveled through Asia for the US Marines. What should not be food insecurity? Everyone deserves proper nutrition.”
Do you want to reach out to me? Find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram @Amydroo or the Osfoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com. Join Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook Group for more foodie fun.
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All classes containing the complete recipe are online so that other classes can access GetCooking.org.
Original release: May 2, 2025 1:02 PM EDT
