OUR MISSION
Beecher’s Flagship Foundation inspires and empowers children to make smart, healthy eating choices. Our Pure Food Kids Workshop aims to spark an interest and curiosity within students, while providing the tools necessary for further exploration both in and outside the classroom.
ABOUT US
The Flagship Foundation is dedicated to educating kids and their parents about foods and food additives.
We believe that if people know what is actually in the foods they eat, they will make healthier choices, opting for real food instead of highly processed foods that have a heavy impact on their health.
The Pure Food Kids Workshop is aimed at 4th – 6th grade students in Public and Private schools and Homeschool groups. We currently provide the workshop in the Puget Sound and greater Portland, OR regions.
To date, we have reached over 20,000 kids and, in the 2010 school year, we will be in over 330 classrooms…in front of 8,ooo children!
The Pure Food Families Workshop is offered free to parent groups to give them the tools they need to understand how the food choices have changed. One of our main areas of focus is Food Additives. Many Food Additives have been shown to have significant health impacts.
OUR HISTORY
Kurt Beecher Dammeier’s commitment to pure foods and passion for education led to the founding of the Beecher’s Flagship Foundation in 2004. Beecher’s, Pasta & Co., and Kurt’s other companies contribute 1% of all of their sales to funding the Flagship Foundation, and its school program, the Pure Food Kids (PFK) Workshop. PFK teaches fourth through sixth grade students about healthy eating and nutrition. In the classroom, students learn how to read a nutrition label and decipher an ingredient list, about potentially harmful food additives, and how to make a hearty vegetable chili. The workshop is completely hands on–kids look at real world foods, actual boxes of product, and even taste all of their hard-work at the end.
In the Pure Food Kids Workshop’s pilot year, 2006, the Foundation set a goal of teaching ten classes, and ended up with sixteen. Each year since, more classes, districts, and families have been reached. For the 2009-2010 school year, 300 classes were taught. This upcoming year we are hoping to increase by at least 10%, being in 330 classrooms by June. The PFK workshop is currently being taught in much of Western Washington, in addition to the Portland, Oregon area. With the opening of Beecher’s in Manhattan, the Flagship Foundation will be starting to teach New York.
