TIPTONVILLE, Tenn. — The Northwest Tennessee Local Food Network will implement the Children’s Health through Education and Food, or CHEF, program in schools through a federal grant, which will teach students life skills and highlight foods that are locally grown.
The United States Department of Agriculture selected LFN as a 2026 Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grantee, awarding the network a $500,000 grant to implement the CHEF program and to support the Tennessee Farm2Future Coalition. The program will provide nutrition training, classroom and cafeteria culinary skill-building, student local food taste tests and agriculture and nutrition education, while using locally grown food.
Samantha Smith Goyret, a co-director of the LFN, said it’s a two-year grant and multiple school districts will be using the CHEF program, including Lake County Schools. Caroline Ideus, the other co-director of the LFN, explains what the program will be like.
“Our purpose is to create a thriving, equitable food system. That means teaching kids, youth [and] adults how to grow food; [understanding] where it comes from and what you can grow seasonally. Then, [for] consumers, what can we buy locally? That’s why it’s really important,” Ideus said.
During this process, schools will be paired with a CHEF ambassador to learn how to cook and highlight the culinary arts.
“Our CHEF ambassadors are going to be teaching culinary labs and then also offering side-by-side training in the school cafeteria, not only with cafeteria staff, but also a student work-based learner that will foster that ability to cultivate more in culinary arts,” Goyret said.
Although the program is new, Lake County High School has already begun participating in the program.
Lake County High School students have begun the CHEF program by pickling vegetables.
Zoe Lewis
“FFA students are involved in the growing and production of school-based grown foods, and then the culinary students use those locally grown foods to offer themed meals or prepared dishes. For example, in the month of August they’re focusing on pickling,” Goyret said. “The FFA students were able to harvest beans and cucumbers and okra, and the culinary students pickled those items that were grown fresh on school [grounds].”
However, Goyret said the program will provide more than learning or cooking a new item at school.
“They’ll be able to take recipes home to their families and say, ‘Hey, I cook this at school. Let’s cook it here. We can get cucumbers grown locally by farmer Joe down the street.’ Being able to connect those local food sources, the seasonality of foods and getting in touch with our food system again — that will help foster that resiliency,” Goyret said.
Lake County High School’s Culinary Teacher Sarah Hollowell will help implement the program, and she said it will help students learn important life skills.
“A lot of these kids are going to be moving out on their own or maybe going to college, and I want to give them tools where they can be successful using their culinary skills in their own personal lives,” Hollowell said.
Although the program is new, she said her students are excited.
“They’re realizing that some of these things that they would normally buy at the store can actually be made easily,” Hollowell said. “We’re just giving them the tools to realize that they are very capable of doing all of these things. Some of these things may seem hard, but they’re actually finding they’re quite good at it.”
LCHS’ CHEF Ambassador is Chef JuSy Mance. She said she will help teach students kitchen and cooking basics and show how simple ingredients can enhance a food’s flavor.
“We are going to start in the cafeterias, working with the kitchen staff and learning what they’re doing to help the students first, and then we’re going to introduce some recipes that we’ve come up with for the students,” Mance said.
She will also collaborate with the cafeteria staff to help them better use the kitchen equipment they have. Goyret said they will also have students taste test the recipes during lunchtime, and recipes that are popular among students will eventually be added to the school’s lunch menu.
Carrie Regalado, the CTE director for LCHS, said having this program and working with a chef will give students insight into another career field, especially in Lake County.
“Some of these kids may have never thought about going to culinary school, or taking an acre of farmland and actually turning it and selling it in places in this area. These are things that we can do for them to help them get those ideas and get that inspiration to go out and find those that you didn’t think that was there for them in this area. Just trying to build our community up,” Regalado said.
Both Regalado and Goyret emphasized this could be beneficial for Lake County as it’s seen as a tourist destination due to Reelfoot Lake.
“Getting kids into culinary fields as a good job is really important for the sustainability of Lake County [and] communities that are surrounding Reelfoot Lake, but also for the sustenance of kids who might want to stay around. Then, they can have that entrepreneurship and have those skill sets to be able to provide them a good living wage when they grow up,” Goyret said.
Goyret said they have many ideas for the program and hope to see it grow over the next two years to where they can continue it once the grant ends.
Dining and Cooking