After struggling for years with dietary and health issues, seven-year-old Ymir entrepreneur Dani Evans became concerned about how healthy food was being depicted as “yucky” or “gross” on TV.
“I want to make things fun,” said the precocious star of the locally filmed Cooking with Kids: How to Make Healthy Food Fun! The show now has over ten episodes online, co-starring a variety of their favourite stuffed animals.
While creating the show, Dani enlisted the help of her three-year-old brother Alex as well as her mother Liz.
And once the show was up and running, they decided they would send any proceeds from the endeavour to local food banks.
Their goal is to raise $500 by Christmas.
“Then all the families will be able to have good food for Christmas and everyone can have a big healthy dinner,” Dani said.
Alex is proud of his contribution to the process. “I made the smoothie all by myself,” he told the Star. “It was really, really fun.”
That smoothie consisted of yogurt, spinach, bananas, blueberries, almond milk, flax seed, hemp hearts and strawberries.
“We really want to celebrate wholesome, hearty, real food,” said Liz. “We have one episode where we make a homemade mac and cheese with no additives. Then there’s another where we make zucchini chocolate chip muffins.”
But the main priority is to have fun, said Dani.
“I didn’t want cooking to be so boring. If you experiment with food it can end up being a masterpiece instead of ‘oh gross, broccoli’. We try to make it the opposite so they don’t say ‘ew gross’. Instead they say ‘I really want some’.”
Now that she’s transitioned to a healthier diet, Dani wants everyone to know the benefits.
“I feel way better than before. My body feels less sticking out and my tummy doesn’t ache as much.”
To view the videos, check out Cooking with Kids: We Make Healthy Food Fun.
This story will appear in the West Kootenay Advertiser.
