by Olivia Young
At the Riverdale Y Sunday Market, 29-year-old Ben Averbuch stood behind a table spread with fresh ingredients such as corn and avocado scattered between spices, mixing bowls and a portable frying pan. A few young participants stood to the side, kid-friendly knives in hand or simply observing, as Averbuch walked them through a cooking class.
Averbuch, founder of the Student Kitchen, is a former special education teacher who now hosts cooking workshops for kids — from toddlers to highschoolers — and occasionally older adults. Along with measuring spices and chopping veggies is a conscious effort to instill confidence in students, build healthy eating habits and shine a light on citywide food insecurity.
The first time Averbuch taught at the market, he said the response from the community was positive, though attendance was limited by the cold. But at the May 17 workshop, with the sun shining bright and temperatures exceeding 80 degrees, kids and adults alike passed by the booth for a lesson or a free sample.
The meal of choice was esquites, a Mexican street food made from corn kernels. One young chef, six-year-old Eria Donohue, cut uniform slices of cucumber to add in. Donohue doesn’t cook often at home, but the chopping was her favorite part. She said she enjoyed the esquites, and offered some to her sister.
The kitchen has led to connections beyond lessons as well. Averbuch uses the olive oil of another vendor at the market, Hsi-Yun Hsiung from Bear Bread Breadworks. Hsiung traded Averbuch fresh bread for the Student Kitchen’s meal the first time they met, and kept up the exchange the next Sunday. Hsiung explained he appreciates the accessibility of the workshop.
“People make cooking too complicated,” Hsiung said. “He keeps it real simple.”
While the Student Kitchen makes culinary education accessible to kids, its flavor speaks to adults too. At the workshop, 87-year-old Mary Lou took a bite of the esquites, and encouraged Averbuch to consider doing classes for older adults at the Riverdale Y.
“Seniors have a sense of going downhill once you get to a certain age,” Lou said. “This is very, very good — keeps us busy, keeps us learning.”
Averbuch said he was first drawn to teaching when he was a student at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. While at the school, he got involved with Peer Health Exchange, a nonprofit that trains college students to teach highschoolers mental and sexual health education. After graduating during the Covid-19 pandemic, Averbuch had the urge to work in a people-focused environment, and soon after was hired as a paraprofessional at a Boston public school. It was the first time at that stage in his life he was excited about a job.
“I saw how much energy and joy I was getting from working with youth,” Averbuch recalled. “It was kind of like, ‘Okay, I’m in the right spot. I need to figure out the best role within it.’”
Still, he sought something new after living near Boston his whole life, and moved to Brooklyn to teach high school social studies at a charter school. He realized quickly that when it comes down to it, the job is less about subject matter, and more about playing a part in kids’ development. After recognizing a lack of home economics programs, now known as family and consumer sciences, he launched an after-school club to help his students learn to cook, which would later expand to become the Student Kitchen in 2023.
“There are a lot of chefs who obviously have the knowledge to do this, but they’re not teachers,” Averbuch said. “They don’t necessarily know how to speak to the kids, how to make something engaging, how to ensure everyone gets a chance to get their hands dirty.”
Part of the goal is for kids to try something new, Averbuch explained, but it’s also about uplifting them. When kids are confident in their abilities, they’ll more easily integrate healthy cooking into their lives. This includes buying nutritious food, but also knowing how to substitute ingredients depending on what’s in their fridge, or avoiding costly speciality items.
Averbuch also uses the kitchen to examine a critical issue in the Bronx: food insecurity. According to the state department of health, 39 percent of adults in the borough have limited or uncertain access to food — the highest in New York City.
With an issue as immense as food insecurity, Averbuch said he doesn’t need to “beat it over the head” when he teaches. Instead, he asks questions that offer a way forward: What’s the highest ingredient price students have witnessed? What impacts prices? Where do they see food get thrown out?
“There’s so much food that gets wasted, there’s so much need, but people aren’t meeting each other,” Averbuch said. He went on to say that he tries to shape the workshop around “connecting it to what’s happening at large in the community and in New York City as a whole.” Even younger kids are receptive to that conversation, Averbuch noted.
Michael Tracey, community enrichment manager at the Riverdale Y, said the organization first met Averbuch at last year’s Fall Festival. The Y had the funds this year to bring him back, and Tracey said they jumped at the chance.
“As a food justice-themed market, we’re always looking for ways that we can make people a little bit more food literate,” Tracey said. “Getting started with youth is wonderful because they’ll have that foundation from a young age.”
Averbuch operates the Student Kitchen full time, and along with his new gig at the Sunday market, also collaborates with nonprofits Bronx Eats, Beazer’s Garden and Green Beatz to conduct classes. Once the school year ends, he’ll be working with the Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School.
At the market, Averbuch explained that aside from being instructional, the kitchen encourages passersby to linger, ask questions and “have a conversation with a stranger.”
“People stick around,” Averbuch said. “Food is just a vehicle for the community aspect.”
Keywords
Bronx educator,
cooking classes for youth,
food justice Bronx,
Student Kitchen program,
healthy eating education,
Riverdale community events,
culinary education NYC