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How One Mom Has Made A Business Out Of Cooking To Educate Kids


In 2006, Samantha Barnes left behind her career as a middle school social studies teacher to teach cooking to children. She quickly discovered that kids discover diverse cultures through cooking, mix math, science, taste history, and more.

“When I became a mom, I saw firsthand that cooking with my kids presented a powerful opportunity to discover, learn, laugh, connect, and make memories together,” shared Barnes.

Raddish Kids was created in 2014, bringing Ms. Barnes’s experience and expertise into family kitchens across the country. One of the Raddish Kids’ primary goals, aside from creating quality family time, is to prepare kids for all stages of a delicious life. This includes arming them with the culinary confidence to help their parents make dinner, to bake muffins for a neighbor, prepare after-school snacks with their friends, and in time to feed their own families. In addition, Barnes believes that cooking is fun and offers an ideal way for kids to take risks, learn from their mistakes, follow directions, foster creativity, curiosity, and resilience, become independent, and try new things.

Classroom to the Kitchen

Growing up, Ms. Barnes’s family was very passionate about food and cooking. Her mother had owned a gourmet cookware store (before Williams Sonoma was “a thing,” Ms. Barnes adds.) When she was 2-years-old, her mother, a single parent, sold the shop to take care of her. As a result, she and her mother made and ate dinner together nearly every night growing up.

Then, years later, in 2006, Ms. Barnes was a middle school social studies teacher. Around that time, she and her students would partake in conversations around The Food Network and often spoke about the shows/recipes. However, she learned that despite her students’ interest in cooking shows, they didn’t actually know how to cook. So Ms. Barnes decided to launch a mobile cooking school that taught kids cooking through after-school programs, camps, and classes.

“Leading a classroom of middle schoolers is a lot like being a CEO,” Barnes said. “You need control of the ship — but not at the expense of humility; you need buy-in from your students (or co-workers) to accomplish projects and achieve growth;  you need to model respect and empathy at all times. Finally, and most importantly, you must be flexible and agile, willing to change plans on a dime to accommodate a teachable moment, a fire drill, or even a substitute (no matter how firm your lesson plan — or business plan — is). I often tell people I run the kind of company I would want to work at — and likewise, I always aimed to be the kind of teacher I would have liked to have.”

The Business of Cooking With Kids

In 2013, she developed the concept of Raddish Kids, which would officially launch in 2014. This monthly kit would package up the incredible lessons they had been teaching at their camps and classes in a monthly lesson and allow kids across the country to learn in their homes alongside their families.

Research has also has shown that cooking with kids creates successful and healthier adults and brings families together.

“What began as a side hustle of camps and classes slowly became a flourishing business across Los Angeles,” Barnes said. “I knew there was a demand for kids’ culinary experiences. So rather than continue to try to scale something locally, I decided to package our curriculum and recipes into a monthly themed kit and mail it across the country so kids anywhere could learn the joys of cooking.”

Ms. Barnes funded Raddish through a successful Kickstarter campaign and funds from her mobile cooking school, which she continued to operate for in-person summer camps. She also was on the Food Network’s Food Fortune and was offered to fund. However, she declined and hasn’t sought funding for Raddish.

As a former teacher, Samantha recognized the many connections food provides, thus making learning delicious by incorporating math, science and geography, and more into the monthly culinary lessons. In addition, many homeschool families and programs incorporate Raddish into their lessons.

Being a Mother and an Entrepreneur

Between 2014 and 2016, research shows the number of women-owned employer firms grew 6%, double the 3% growth rate for employer firms owned by men. However, women are still underrepresented as they are the majority owners of 21% of employer businesses. When asked what have advice she has for women who want to start their own business, Ms. Barnes answered, “Don’t wait for the right time, because there will likely never be a right time.”

She also advises that running a business can’t be treated like a hobby because it requires your time and energy 24 hours a day. “The morning after giving birth to my daughter, I was running payroll from the hospital,” Barnes shared. “There is no real maternity leave for an entrepreneur — nor did I have an accounting and HR team, and it was payday, whether I was a new mom or not!”

If one is to start their own business endeavor, it should certainly be something you feel passionate about. The entire team of Raddish is working hard to give kids confidence in the kitchen and beyond. So while the activity is cooking, it’s not so much about creating future chefs as much as it is about creating a foundation for a life filled with good food and all the community, conversation, and relationships.

“I hope that families use Raddish to turn their kitchen into a classroom,” adds Barnes. “Kids appreciate where food comes from, learn how to problem-solve, become creative and curious, try new things, and practice resiliency. Kids learn best by doing — and Raddish is an immersive culinary experience that teaches cooking skills, math, science, geography, STEM, and more.”

For Ms. Barnes, this extends to setting an example for her own children. “First and foremost, I am a mom,” she said. “I have always prioritized my kids. My kids have seen all stages of entrepreneurship, from our early days of packing and shipping cooking kits in our backyard, to the last year and a half of working remotely under the same roof. My kids don’t need to invent something to feel successful, but they should be inspired to do what they love, surrounded by great people that make a difference for others.”



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