What began as a creative homeschool initiative for chef, designer, and urban gardener Alicia Garcia’s own four children has blossomed into a curriculum of cultural heritage cooking classes, food literacy, natural wellness, and sustainability-driven home economics. Serving families across Palm Beach and Broward counties, Project Flourish offers eco-minded hands-on cooking classes, seasonal garden and apothecary workshops, “edible earth” food literacy programming, seasonal craft workshops, and other flavors of lifestyle programming for kids and adults alike.
From dumpling-making and kitchen herbalism to floral arranging and pottery play, the curriculum weaves together history, science, wellness, culinary exploration, and the arts in a fun way that encourages practical skill development. “I consider my kitchen-classroom a ‘joy space’ for life-connected learning,” Garcia says. “When we are safe, happy, and curious, learning can happen anywhere.”
This school year, Garcia will offer the Culinary Casita series, a plant-forward intensive available to both homeschoolers and traditional learners. She also recently wrote a chapter entitled “The Yummiest Parts of Nature” for the new book Seeing Ourselves in Nature: Stories from Educators and Children of Indigenous, Black, and Other People of the Global Majority, which was released in August.
It’s all part of her goal to rekindle lost arts and empower the next generation with lifelong skills, foodway knowledge, and a mindful approach to nourishing the rhythms of life, one lesson at a time.
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