What’s cooking

“Dear ChopChop, Your magazines are so awesome. I love the fun games to play. Thank you for all the awesome things. Please write back.”

“Dear Chop Chop, I love your magazines. They are so cool, especially the mazes and crosswords. My grandma and grandpa got it for me and I loved it. I can’t wate to get more.”

Author: Liz McEachem Hall“We’re a culture where non-cooks are not teaching cooking. It’s non-cooks after non-cooks. So, if we can break that cycle and get kids in the kitchen and cooking from scratch, I think we can make a really big difference. Kids love it. They love it. It’s really fun. It’s a great activity for kids to do with the adults in their life.”
— Sally Sampson

“We get these every month,” says Sally Sampson of the letters above from children that were sent to the Letters to the Editor in ChopChop magazine. “The first time we did it we got like two and now we’re getting more and more. The kids love to see their names and pictures in the magazine and we have a lot of feedback from kids.”

An award-winning writer of 22 cookbooks, Sally Sampson in 2010 founded the nonprofit organization ChopChopKids, with a mission to inspire and teach kids to cook real food with their families. The organization publishes quarterly its namesake magazine, ChopChop: The Fun Cooking Magazine for Families, which now is in its fifth year.

Endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, ChopChop is geared toward children ages 5 to 12 years old and hopes to be part of the solution in reducing and preventing childhood obesity and hunger nationwide.

Sampson’s daughter was the inspiration for the magazine. As a child, she suffered from a chronic illness. Sampson wanted to use her culinary skills to help address more serious problems. “Although my daughter’s disease had nothing to do with obesity she was on a very low fat diet so I learned a lot about obesity. My feeling was that if kids who were obese cooked from scratch, it would begin to take care of their eating habits,” Sampson said in a recent phone interview with Banner Biz.

The colorful magazine is filled with great-tasting, fun and inexpensive recipes (all approved by the American Academy of Pediatrics) that both children and adults can make for the whole family. On the cover and on the inside pages of ChopChop you’ll find photos of children from various ethnic backgrounds preparing healthy and simple dishes, including watermelon agua fresca and cherry-berry smoothie as well as curried spinach salad and tasty tabbouleh. All recipes are concocted by Sampson and Catherine Newman, the magazine’s editor.

ChopChop also is chock full of fun food facts, games, crossword puzzles, and tips ranging from growing your own herb garden and cleaning greens to how to cut and eat a mango. You’ll also find interviews featuring the magazine’s “healthy heroes”, such as teen entrepreneur Carter Kostler who invented the Define Bottle, a fruit-infused water bottle that serves as an alternative to drinking soda and sugary beverages. In the summer 2012 issue, former NBA basketball player Grant Hill was interviewed by his daughter Myla to find out the scoop on foods he likes to eat. Earlier this year, the magazine celebrated its fifth anniversary with a special spring issue featuring First Lady Michelle Obama discussing her Let’s Move! campaign (which also is celebrating its five-year anniversary).

Author: Carl TremblayInside pages of ChopChop magazine.

Since 2010 the magazine has grown “five-fold in five years,” Sampson said. “Our first issue was 150,000 copies and now we’re doing 750,000 copies, and we’re doing them in English and Spanish. The world has really changed in that people are embracing this as a solution.” Initially, ChopChop was distributed in 35 states, but now can be found in all 50 states, as well as 20 countries. In 2013, the magazine won the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award for Publication of the Year.

When Sampson first created ChopChop her hope for the magazine was “that we would really just keep growing and that we would reach more and more kids, which we have done.” From the beginning, the idea was to have children involved in the cooking so they can learn to take responsibility, Sampson said. “They see what they’re doing and also they’re the future. We’re a culture where non-cooks are not teaching cooking. It’s non-cooks after non-cooks. So, if we can break that cycle and get kids in the kitchen and cooking from scratch I think we can make a really big difference. Kids love it. They love it. It’s really fun. It’s a great activity for kids to do with the adults in their life.”

Now, five years into it. Sampson has big plans for ChopChopKids. In late May, she launched the ChopChop Cooking Club, an online platform for kids to discover new recipes. She and her team also have started a ChopChop Cooking Lab in which they’re developing an educational curriculum for schools, and ChopChop WIC (Women, Infants & Children). If that’s not enough, they’re also launching another magazine for low-income, pregnant young mothers to learn how to cook and shop on a budget.

Author: Carl TremblayInside pages of ChopChop magazine.

Sampson explains the philosophy behind ChopChopWIC. “If you’re on WIC, let’s say you’re pregnant, and I have a two-year-old. We both can be part of WIC. We’ll get slightly different things because a pregnant mom has slightly different needs than someone with a young child. The government has decided here are the foods we think that you should be eating for maximum health. And, so we’ve taken those foods and we’ve developed recipes solely based on those.”

Sampson, who ran a few businesses prior to founding ChopChopKids, is fully committed and dedicated to the organization’s mission. “What I love about running a non-profit is that our single motivation is to fulfill our mission, which is to inspire and teach kids to cook and eat real food with their families. We run everything through that lens and are not beholden to advertisers, investors or anything else.”

ChopChop magazine is distributed through children’s hospitals, health centers, public schools, afterschool programs, Indian reservations, and community organizations. It’s also available at newsstands and by subscription. For more information on the magazine, visit www.chopchopmag.org.