At one table a group of people grated zucchinis and mashed black beans. Another group mixed spices. A third group chopped mangos while squeezing lime juice.

The cooks were students at Dawes Elementary School who, as part of a two-week program to promote healthy eating, learned how to prepare a simple and nutritious meal.

The school’s Cooking Up Wellness program began Feb. 1 and ended Tuesday. The participants were in kindergarten through fifth grade at Dawes, 440 Dodge Ave.

The Cooking Up Wellness program was started in 2008, but the organization could not sponsor an event last year because it lacked funds, said Lynn Hyndman, the school garden coordinator. Hyndman said the cooking session is actually an extension of the school garden, or the Garden of Eating as students and staff call it.

Students in Room 19 were the final class on Tuesday to make zucchini black bean burgers with Elizabeth Thomas, a cooking expert with Nurture, an Illinois-based non-profit organization that seeks to teach low-income families to cook healthy meals.

“I feel passionately that we need to teach our children to cook so they can provide for themselves,” said Thomas, who helped the students cook in their classroom. “My passion of cooking healthy and cooking in general is something I can share with other people.”

Thomas started the one-hour session by telling the students about what they would be making and also made sure students kept their hands clean and sanitized. The students broke off into three different groups: one to shred the zucchini and mash the black beans, another to mix the beans with spices and an egg to make the patties and one more to work on the salsa.

The students worked as a team, switching off between different tasks.

“It allows students a chance to use a lot of the skills we teach, like measurement and reading recipes,” said fifth-grade teacher Renee Davis. “They get to utilize those skills in a fun and out-of-the-ordinary way, and it also gets students to think about vegetables and some seasonings that they’re not accustomed to.”

As the students waited for the patties to cook, Thomas had them do yoga and jumping jacks.

“It’s just another important part of life,” she said. “It’s nice having this balance (of eating healthy and exercising) without going to the extreme with just one thing.”

After the yoga session, the students were able to sample their zucchini black bean burgers with salsa.

“It seems like my daughter really likes what was made so we’ll make this at home sometimes,” said Rika Seko, who volunteered at her daughter’s fifth-grade class during the cooking session, as well as her first-grade daughter’s class. “I’m pleasantly surprised that the children are equally having fun and participating at this age.”

Davis said the cooking session was informative for her students.

“It was a delightful experience,” she said. “If we asked them if they’d do it again, we’d probably get a resounding, ‘Yes.'”[email protected]