Tommie Gaines

Gaines’ innovative teaching idea, “Cyclone Cookers,” focuses on teaching the students at W.D. Sugg Middle School how to grow herbs and create healthy recipes. To help increase awareness of proper nutrition and the importance of a healthy diet, Gaines will plan to renovate the school’s current greenhouse to provide hands-on learning and growing experiences. With the Voya grant, Gaines will create this working greenhouse to enable students to grow vegetables and herbs for a school-wide plant sale, but also take their cooking demonstrations and produce on the road. Gaines hopes the knowledge and materials leveraged through this program will be used in cooking labs to demonstrate to students how to create and execute nutritious and affordable recipes for their families.