The Legacy Project is a program developed through The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation and The Hagedorn Legacy Foundation. Its mission is to empower youth, through possibility thinking and innovative problem-solving, for greater personal freedom, social mobility, and the betterment of their communities.
The Legacy Project also offers students immersive learning experiences through quarterly Incubator Labs. This month, students joined the staff over at Kitchen of Life in Bexley, Ohio for a MasterChef experience. Their motto “creating resiliency through culinary experiences” was well embodied by the students during the day. The overall theme was generosity. Kitchen of Life staff members walked the students through different ways they could be generous to themselves and their community. After providing examples of generosity, students were tasked with keeping those things in mind as they worked on their dish.
Transitioning to their culinary experience, students were split into groups and paired with a volunteer from The Robert Weiler Company, a commercial real estate firm located in Downtown Columbus. Students were provided with two separate quesadilla recipes and had to work with their teams to prepare the dish. In order to keep the day’s theme of generosity in mind students had to rely both on their group and others outside their group to complete the dish. Ingredients were scattered so students had to share ingredients with each other and speak up to ask for help when needed.
Students also had to work through some challenges while making the quesadillas. Some students found it difficult to use certain ingredients to complete their dish. One set of students were provided with corn tortillas while others were given flour. The students discovered that the corn tortillas had a tendency to break when folded which they were not expecting. This provided the students with an opportunity to problem solve and be creative with their recipes. Some students utilized their teams and brainstormed different variations of the dish to have a better outcome. One group decided not to fold the corn tortilla but instead used two tortillas stacked on top of each other for less manipulation. Another group attempted to be more gentle in their preparation in order not to break the tortilla. Others went outside of their immediate team members to gain inspiration from other groups and borrow their flour tortillas.
Students took it upon themselves to share their meals with their coaches which helped to reinforce the day’s theme. Following their culinary experience, students had the opportunity to ask their volunteers different questions about their careers in real estate. One of those volunteers even included Super Bowl Champion and All American, former Buckeye Mike Doss.
In the end, the students persisted through, learned a lot about generosity and were able to make a great dish.
