What’s Cooking at the Library? by Henry McFetridge

By Henry McFetridge, ChopChop Kid Advisory Board Member

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Being a Kids Advisory Board member for ChopChop this year really gave me some new experiences and let me meet new people. Before, I had never really thought about magazines or publications at all. Then I started distributing the magazine to different places around my town and neighboring towns. One of those places is my local library. I supply the library with a few copies of the magazine, and they put it on the check out shelf, put up a free pile, and they even created a cooking backpack that kids can check out.

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The cooking backpack was the brainchild of the main Children’s Librarian, Denise. I had never really talked to her before, but I needed to figure out where to put the magazines. Denise was inspired by ChopChop, so she filled the backpack with cooking materials for making food at home — like a mini cupcake pan, a spatula, a whisk, and many other things — as well as a copy of ChopChop for the kids to keep, for making recipes in the future.

I also have been giving issues to libraries in other towns, and kids I know have reported being excited about the new magazine at their library.

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This exposure to libraries, magazines, and their readers has inspired me to apply for the job of editor of my middle school newspaper. One of my ideas for running the newspaper is having healthy snacks at all the meetings to encourage writers to come. I hope ChopChop can spread healthy eating and good writing around your world, too!