Community Classroom Kitchen Announces Chef-Curated Meal Boxes for the Holidays
Buy your Favorite Family (Or Yourself) a Dinner or Membership While Feeding a Family in Need
Boca Raton, FL – Community Classroom Project’s (CCP) Community Classroom Kitchen, has just announced its Chef-Curated Meal Box Campaign for the holidays, which will run from now until the end of January 2021.
The Community Classroom Kitchen’s (CCK) Executive Chef, Blake Malatesta, has curated a seasonal menu full of easy and delicious make-together family meals that will get everyone cooking, learning and laughing in the kitchen. When an order is placed for a Meal Box, a family in need receives one, as well.
Boxes may be purchased for meals and baking individually, or pre-plan for a season of weekly at-home restaurant quality meals to cook yourself, with your family – or even better, have the kids cook! Each box comes with easy recipes, a chance to learn a new kitchen skill and a step-by-step cooking lesson from Chef Blake.
“Don’t just buy your favorite family a fabulous holiday dinner this year. Feed a family in need, too,” Ali Kaufman, founder of the Community Classroom Project said. “This holiday season, we’re all staying home for dinner more. Here’s a way to get or give an amazing meal, while helping others.”
Here’s how it works:
1. Sign up for the weekly meal boxes to be picked up, delivered or shipped.
2. Each box comes with fresh and farm-sourced ingredients, simple instructions, a link to a cooking video to sharpen your cooking skills with Chef Blake, along with some fun facts and inspiration to kick off the conversation around the table.
3. Kids and adults alike can learn how to cook from the videos.
For each box sold, a family who can’t otherwise afford the fresh ingredients for a family dinner will receive a box, too. CCK is proud to partner with the Milagro Center and the Achievement Centers for Children and Families, two organizations serving families throughout Palm Beach County.
According to the American College of Pediatrics, family time at the dinner table and family conversation in general has declined by more than 30% over the past three decades – an alarming trend that has been linked to decreases in academic performance and family resiliency. The Community Classroom Kitchen Meal Box Project equips children and adults with the interest, knowledge, and resources to cook together at home – a skillset that not only helps families save money and make healthier food choices, but also is essential for helping them reconnect around the dinner table and improve their relationships, self-esteem, and long-term well-being. As we foster better health, life skills, and social cohesion through cooking, there is no better place to start than in the kitchen, together for the holidays.
To make a donation, for more information or to purchase meal boxes for yourself or others, visit www.findspaceofmind.com/cck or call 561-894-8772.
About Community Classroom Kitchen
Community Classroom Kitchen is an initiative of Community Classroom Project, a 501(c) nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing family engagement in learning and reducing school-related stress for students, parents, families and educators. The CCK aims to do this by encouraging families to have better quality food and conversation around the dinner table. Through partnerships with local family and youth service organizations, restaurants, farms and philanthropies, CCK is committed to providing great food and homemade memories for ALL families. Every meal box purchased allows one to be given to a family in need. The Community Classroom Kitchen facility is currently under construction on the Space of Mind campus in downtown Delray Beach, Florida. This commercial teaching, catering and commissary kitchen will nurture careers through its test kitchen, mentorship, entrepreneurship opportunities, classes, workshops and events.
About Blake Malatesta
Blake Malatesta knew from an early age that cooking would be his life’s passion. Growing up on a sugar cane farm in Laplace, Louisiana, life was simple. Food was authentic, and cooking was a way of life. This food culture that surrounded Blake would eventually be the foundation of his cooking mentality.
Chef Blake attended both the University of South Florida for Business management and Finance and the Institute de Paul Bocuse in Lyon, France. The balance of business and culinary artistry would be the foundation of his career. After graduating, Chef Malatesta traveled around the world honing his craft from Philadelphia, Mexico and Costa Rica to Europe at hotels and restaurants in Germany, Italy, France, Romania, Moldova and Turkey.
Blake eventually settled down in Delray Beach, where he has been named one of the Top 10 Rising Chefs of South Florida and the South Florida Food and Wine Top Chef award. Blake’s food is made with the humility and love with which he lives his life, constantly honing his craft and now committed to inspiring families to enjoy the approachable uniqueness of local and sustainable food through the Community Classroom Kitchen.
About Community Classroom Project
The Community Classroom Project (CCP) is an innovative new nonprofit in Palm Beach County whose mission is to reduce school-related stress in classrooms and families by bridging the gap between students, parents, educators, schools, and the community. By aligning these traditionally independent support systems, strengthening networks and resources for teachers and families, and providing diverse and enriching extracurricular and community activities, each CCP program develops social, emotional, creative, and life skills for each participant.