Battle Born Produce Picassos

A young male student makes a chef's face out of produce

Chefs for Kids recently brought a splash of color and creativity to Battle Born Academy with our second Produce Picasso class! Kindergarten through second-grade students embarked on a fun-filled journey of “tasting the rainbow,” learning about the importance of eating a variety of fruits and vegetables for a healthy diet. With an artistic twist, the young chefs used fresh produce to design playful chef faces, turning nutritious ingredients into edible masterpieces.

The class starts with an introduction to each color of the rainbow, and how that particular color helps with different aspects of keeping your body healthy. For example, red fruits and vegetables are high in fiber which helps with digestion, or green produce is high in potassium which helps with muscle and bone health. But it’s not just a lecture, the teachers keep the class engaging by having the kids rub their bellies when talking about digestion, or point to other body parts. They also quiz the kids on which fruit and vegetables are in each color group.

A female teacher leads a class through the colors of the rainbow

Once they learn about the colors of the rainbow, they get to taste the rainbow! Just like in our Farmers Markets, the teachers led the kids in a tasting of spinach and arugula with a twist of Cara Cara oranges. The kids had fun squeezing the orange into the bag of lettuce then shaking the bag to create their own salad dressing!

a young male student preps his plate with lettuce and an orange

A young female student squeezes an orange into a bag of lettuce to create a salad dressing

Then came the real fun: transforming fresh fruits and veggies into creative chef faces. With a pineapple slice for the face, a cherry tomato nose, grape eyes, a blueberry smile, mandarin orange eyebrows, and a fluffy cauliflower chef’s hat, each creation was as adorable as it was delicious. And of course, after crafting their edible art, the best part was digging in and tasting the fun!

Two male students make chefs faces out of produce

Two female students make chefs faces out of produce

A lot of hands went into making this event a success. Our volunteers and nutrition educators at the University of Nevada, Reno Extension spent the prior day prepping all of the food components for the chefs face as well as stuffing the bags of produce for kids to take home. With the help of an MGM Resorts International hunger grant, each student got to take home a bag filled with a rainbow of seasonal produce including a bunch of radishes, cara-cara oranges, a bag of rainbow carrots, cucumbers, canned blueberries in water and parsnips.

A special shoutout also goes out to our friends at Sprouts Farmers Market for helping us with our extra special produce order, and the Timothy S.Y. Lam Foundation for its recent donation to support 2025 Produce Picasso events. Our next one is being planned for summer outreach!