LKA’s Global Strategic Partners.

BIRKENSTOCK

BIRKENSTOCK is LKA’s global footwear partner. BIRKENSTOCK kitchen shoes are known throughout the culinary industry as the #1 best footwear choice for culinary activities focused on comfort, safety, and durability. All LKA Staff are required to wear BIRKENSTOCK in our kitchens and students will be offered the non-slip shoes when they step into our kitchen to give them a try. An added bonus, BIRKENSTOCK shoes are durable and therefore sustainable by nature. The German-based company also acquires a high proportion of its natural materials, including cork, jute, leather, wool felt, from sustainable sources.

ChefWorks

ChefWorks is the official provider of our LKA Chef Coats throughout Canada. As students are welcomed into our environment, we love to see the joy and excitement in their eyes, their chests puffing out with pride, and watching them stand just a bit taller as they button up their Little Kitchen Academy Chef Coat. Their chef coat plays an important role in building confidence and independence as they begin their journey – from scratch to consumption.

ChefWorks is not your normal, routine uniform manufacturer. With beginnings that date back to the 1960’s, ChefWorks has been an industry leader in the design and development of culinary apparel across the globe. The ChefWorks mission is to provide all clients with new, innovative, high-quality products, along with the tools needed to manage any uniform program; no matter the size.

ChopValue

Vancouver-based ChopValue has created a new and innovative high-performance material for commercial and residential spaces made entirely from recycled chopsticks. ChopValue’s goal is to prove that a circular economy can be the standard in communities everywhere. ChopValue as LKA’s global partner has created a proprietary designed LKA community table made of 33,436 recycled chopsticks. It is a focal point of our environment and the place our students gather to share a meal at the end of each class.

Iron Chef Cat Cora

Little Kitchen Academy has created a number of strategic partnerships that enable the Academy to offer an authentic, sustainable experience. One of those partnerships is with world-renowned chef, best-selling author and restauranteur Cat Cora. Cat Cora made television history when she became the first-ever female Iron Chef on Food Network’s hit show: Iron Chef America. She also became the first female inducted into The American Academy of Chefs Culinary Hall of Fame, went on to cook at two 3-star Michelin restaurants in France, is the founder of her own non-profit charitable organization, Chefs for Humanity, and a judge on ABC’s Family Food Fight.  Cora, a proud mother of six boys, has dedicated herself to educational nutrition and engaging children in the kitchen. “Helping children make healthy food choices is an essential ingredient for instilling good habits for a lifetime,” says Cora.

Cora’s partnership with Little Kitchen Academy is a natural fit for the dedicated mom of six. “I’m all about family, food and love,” says Cora. “When I was presented with Little Kitchen Academy’s concept and Felicity’s vision it made perfect sense; it mirrors my vision for our kids’ future with food.”  Cora is Little Kitchen Academy’s Official Ambassador, Honorary Head of Recipe Development, and Advisory Board Member.

Emeco

Hanover, Pennsylvania, based Emeco began by making recycled aluminum chairs for United States Navy warships during World War II.  The chairs, once produced out of utility, are now both sustainable and iconic. As LKA’s global partner, you will find Emeco dining chairs grouped around our community dining table where students gather to share a meal at the end of every class. The chairs we have selected are produced in partnership with Coca-Cola and are each made of a minimum of 111 recycled plastic bottles.

Küssi

Little Kitchen Academy partnered with Küssi to produce the first-of-its-kind Progressive Knife Set based on LKA’s experience with over 85,000 students.  Küssi, an innovative manufacturer of high-quality knives, is renowned for its commitment to producing safe, durable, and ergonomic kitchen tools. By incorporating Küssi knives into Little Kitchen Academy’s teaching program, children will learn the fundamentals of knife handling using tools specifically designed for their safety and ease of use.

LKA’s Progressive Knife Set is now available for purchase by families who would like to safely practice knife skills at home here.

Lettuce Grow

Lettuce Grow is Little Kitchen Academy’s official provider of our living food wall.  The Lettuce Grow Farmstands allow for the growth of fresh herbs, vegetables and fruits year-round inside our schools, providing our students with a true farm-to-table experience.

Founded in 2017 by Zooey Deschanel and Jacob Pechenik, Lettuce Grow is about more than gardening. It is a movement designed to inspire families to demand better from our food system, improve our health, lessen the impact of climate change and address global resource constraints. The Farmstand units are an easy-to-use and reliable resource that allow anyone to easily grow their own produce year-round.

PRISE Inc.

PRISE Inc. is Little Kitchen Academy’s official provider of the Little Kitchen Academy Child Safe Knife by PRISE, a wooden chopper which is the first in a series of knives used by all Little Kitchen Academy students.

Located in Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada, PRISE Inc. is a non-profit organization whose mission is the social and professional integration of people removed from the labor market. They offer people with various challenges in entering the labor market a six-month course in a manufacturing plant, supported by a team of trainers and counselors as they develop their potential and acquire social and personal stability. To learn more about PRISE Inc., visit prise.ca.

You can purchase a Little Kitchen Academy Child Safe Knife by PRISE here.

Scrub Daddy

Renowned for their iconic smile faced yellow scrubbing sponge, Scrub Daddy has always been dedicated to demonstrating that cleaning can be both fun and effortless if you have the right product.

Scrub Daddy products are a natural complement to Little Kitchen Academy’s mission and purpose. Each Little Kitchen Academy class is intended to empower children and teens with the essential skills to create their own meals from scratch, develop a healthier relationship with food while also increasing their confidence and independence. Every Little Kitchen Academy student has access to their own Scrub Daddy products to use as part of the clean-up process during class.

Welcome Industries

Welcome Industries is Little Kitchen Academy’s official provider for educational cooking tools. Our students find sheer joy in working with Welcome Industries’ set of visual measuring cups, where what you see is what you get— the shape itself shows the measurement. “In addition to empowering children with practical life skills and teaching the power of making good food choices, we try to embed math, science and other educational opportunities into our lessons,” said Felicity Curin, founder of Little Kitchen Academy. “We feel delighted to have found and partnered with Welcome Industries to provide such a clever version of a kitchen staple: measuring cups. But these aren’t just any measuring cups; they are shaped like the fraction of the cup they are: whole, half, third and quarter. I cannot think of a better or more fun way to teach our students about math and measurement.”

Welcome Industries is a woman-owned design practice based in Chicago, Ill., that brings creativity & imagination to everyday objects. It was founded in 2015 by Pam Daniels and Brandon Williams, graduate school classmates at Northwestern University. Their patented measuring cup design has been called “Brilliant” by Core77 and “Genius” by Yanko Design, and was named a Global Innovation Award finalist at the 2019 Housewares Show.