The week before summer programs officially started, Hafer spent hours weaving through the city, delivering more than 200 packages of ingredients to her students. “I am going from 13400 south to 800 north, so from one end of the city to the other,” said Hafer, who lives in Chicago’s far southeastern East Side neighborhood.

Her six-week recipe plan uses the perishable ingredients early on, and everything can be made at home using minimal supplies, she said.

“Youth are fun because they’re inquisitive, and they want to learn,” she said.