Bindi Desai Lessing, MPH, RD, is a Chicago based Dietitian and founder of Chicago Taste Buddies, the first Dietitian-created program for children that focuses on Nutrition, Mindfulness, and Gardening.
Bindi has extensive experience working in private practice, the non-profit setting, and as a state dietitian in Chicago for more than 15 years. Her success was highlighted in the Chicago Tribune, CNN, the BBC and other major publications and TV news channels.
Bindi’s interest in nutrition began as an overweight adolescent. By gradually changing her lifestyle through increasing fruits and vegetables, eating less processed food, yoga and outdoor activities, she began feeling healthier and more energetic. By age 20, she lost 15 pounds – an experience that inspired her career choice to work in public health and disease prevention with families.
She loves to listen to podcasts, cook, and enjoys creating healthy recipes for her family and friends. Bindi resides with her two children and husband in the South Loop in Chicago.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
So far so good. We have had great interest, and suggestions for increasing the amount of classes we have during the week. The kids and parents that have attended the classes have been very happy. We feel great satisfaction in feeling that our mission to help combat obesity, eating disorders and disordered eating at an early age by instilling healthy, mindful and normal eating habits in children has been successful.
Please tell us about Chicago Taste Buddies.
Helping children develop a healthy respect for food and a mindful approach to eating is a challenge for many parents. Understanding where food comes from, what its purpose is, and how nutritious can also be delicious can shape kids’ perspectives and change their behaviors for the better. Chicago Taste Buddies is a ten-week nutrition education program that gives preschool children an experience that mimics home through cooking, gardening and mindfulness. Each class is a 75-minute session that focuses on where food comes from through composting, gardening and cooking healthy “farm to table” food. Any child who likes to have fun with friends and learn by doing can take our workshop series – no cooking, gardening or mindfulness experience required.
Chicago Taste Buddies is a family centered nutrition education company and the first dietitian-led program in the pediatric food and nutrition community. The program offers Little Buds classes for 3-5 year olds and Whiskin’ Kids classes for 6-10 year olds.
Chicago Taste Buddies offers a fun and exciting kid-focused curriculum. We have activities that allow us to touch, feel, taste, and experience food. For example, we do an exercise for the little ones in which we place a vegetable in a paper bag. The kids are blindfolded and they get to put their hand in the bag to touch and feel the vegetable and guess what it is before the grand reveal. After that, they look at it, smell it, and we talk about its special properties. Then, we cook and present it on a beautifully set table. Finally, we appreciate and mindfully taste the vegetable (which is no longer a mystery). We also use community garden plot’s to gives us the opportunity to go outside during class and get kids involved in composting, planting, and harvesting.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I was born in India and came to the USA when I was 2 years old. When we went back to visit, I witnessed poverty and hunger directly. I remember sitting in a rickshaw when I was age 16. There were 25 people surrounding us, begging for money and keeping our rickshaw from moving. There was a sweet looking young girl in the crowd. Instead of asking for money, she smiled and said, “Hi” appearing proud that she knew this English word. I responded “Hi”. Seconds later our rickshaw started moving, but we continued to lock eyes and wave. I noticed her beautiful brown eyes, and her gaunt appearance. It was evident that she didn’t have enough to eat. At the time, I didn’t know that this girl’s face would be etched in my memory, and that my future would be determined by this exchange.
I became interested in poverty and nutrition during that trip. I went on to become a Public Health Dietitian. I learned that poverty and hunger look different in America, but the issue is still of concern. The entirety of my 20 year career has been spent working with children and their families including refugees
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0609/30/hcsg.01.html , the WIC program https://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/women-infants-and-children-wic, and Chicago Taste Buddies.
Contact Info:
- Address: Chicago Taste Buddies
1315 S. Indiana Avenue, Chicago, IL 60605 - Website: http://chitastebuddies.wixsite.com/chicagotastebuddies
- Phone: 312.286.9652
- Email: chicagotastebuddies@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chicagotastebuddies/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chitastebuddies/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/chitastebuddies
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/chicago-taste-buddies-chicago
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzsUp6VIS5nA6rvUfffLEgw
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