Bringing Schoolhouse Mobile Kitchen to your school is simple! From your first inquiry to the day your students put on their aprons, here's what to expect: how we work with your service area and budget, how scheduling fits around your calendar, and what we need from you on class day.
If you're outside our Chicago service area, don't worry, our Beyond Mobile Kitchen program brings the same recipes and training to you in a different way. Below is everything you need to know before booking your first class.
How Our Program Works
We offer services within a 10 mile radius of each of our locations. Allowing our instructors to easily access your schools.
We also offer Mobile Kitchen Beyond for schools outside of our service area.
Wicker Park Area
Portage Park Area
Oak Park & Mobile Kitchen West
Scheduling & Format Options
However you want to bring cooking to your students, we can make it work. Choose from weekly after-school enrichment, one-time field trips, school-day programming, or summer camps — whatever fits your calendar best. Prefer we come to you? Our mobile kitchen sets up right at your school. Looking for a special outing instead? Bring your students to our storefront for a hands-on field trip experience.
Pricing
We can work with your budget! Let’s talk about your objectives and we’ll design a cooking experience for your group. Whether you're looking for weekly enrichment throughout the school year or a one-time seasonal experience, we're happy to build a cadence that fits your school's budget and goals. Reach out and we'll put together a plan tailored to you.
Day-of Logistics
Great classes start with great setup. Our instructors arrive 15-30 minutes before class begins to prep the space, organize ingredients, and get everything ready so class time is spent cooking, not setting up. All we ask is access to the space during that window. From there, we bring everything: cooking equipment, ingredients, and kid-sized tools. You just provide the space.
Food Safety & Dietary Accommodations
Every recipe we cook is free of nuts, meat, and fish, so every student can dig in without worry. Beyond that, we're 100% inclusive. We are happy to accommodate any allergy or dietary restriction so every child in the room gets to participate fully. Just let us know what your students need, and we'll take care of the rest.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does your curriculum cover?
Our Good Food Experience teaches students practical and impressive culinary skills. From colorful veggie fried rice to pasta made from scratch and homemade donuts. While cooking, our enthusiastic instructors weave in lessons on everything from biodiversity to food culture. We balance sweet and savory dishes and highlight seasonal flavors and celebrations throughout the year. Our kid-tested recipes and techniques are designed to inspire a lifetime of fun in the kitchen, and we share them with families so the learning continues at home. Take a peek at what we've been cooking lately.
Who are your instructors?
We have a robust team of reliable, experienced instructors who share a passion for cooking and child development. Meet a few of our team members here.
How big are your classes?
For K-12, classes run 8-10 students with one instructor. For Pre-K, classes run up to 12 students with two instructors.
How do students register?
You can use our Sawyer registration system, or we're happy to work with your own registration system if you already have one in place.
What space do we need to provide?
We bring everything but the kitchen sink! If you can provide a room with a sink, access to electricity, and work tables, we'll transform it into a kitchen classroom.
Do you need storage space?
Yes — we store one bin of equipment, supplies, and pantry ingredients on site for locations with more than one class. It's kept clean, tidy, and sealed, and our instructors bring in fresh ingredients each week to complete that week's recipe.
How does scheduling work?
We build our schedule around whatever other enrichment programs you already have in place. Sessions can run anywhere from one single event up to 20 weeks, depending on what fits your school's calendar.
What if we're outside your service area?
No problem — our Beyond Mobile Kitchen program brings the same Good Food Experience to schools outside our 10-mile Chicago service area (around our Oak Park, Wicker Park, and Portage Park kitchens). Instead of an instructor coming to you each week, we equip your team with a full kit of equipment, seasonal recipes, and hands-on instructor training and ongoing support. Your staff can run the program with the same quality and confidence, wherever you are. It's how partners like CICS-IP bring Schoolhouse to their students.
