The Charlie Cart Project

The Charlie Cart Project brings brings together equipment, lessons and partnerships to provide high-quality food and nutrition programs in any educational setting. Its compact mobile kitchen on wheels provides all the tools and equipment needed to start cooking!

Research shows that hands-on learning promotes success in science, math and social studies and develops collaboration and critical thinking skills. Cooking projects further influence knowledge, attitudes and behaviors around food, fostering lifelong healthy eating habits. The Charlie Cart Project was founded by Carolyn Federman and Brian Dougherty to make hands-on food education simple and accessible nationwide.

“Most schools don’t have kitchens that teachers and students can use,” observes co-founder Carolyn Federman. “So to teach cooking, food educators must cobble together hot plates and plastic bins and whatever we can get our hands on. I started thinking that there’s got to be a better way.”

Designed in collaboration with the Edible Schoolyard Project and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, The Charlie Cart Project enriches programs where school gardens or limited cooking are in place, and brings the benefit of hands-on learning to schools that are just getting started with food education. The cart supports lessons across disciplines, moves easily between classrooms and even works outside in the garden or playground.

Visit The Charlie Cart Project’s website to see how hands-on food education is going mobile!