The Healthy plant-based cooking classes is a project launched by Animal Friends Croatia for elementary school students. The project is sponsored by Tibits, a foreign vegetarian restaurant. 

To raise awareness about a healthy plant-based diet, Animal Friends organized first plant-based cooking classes in 2013 with Kralj Tomislav elementary school students from Zagreb. Their excellent reactions pushed these workshops further and they grew into a project that started in 2014.

The aim of the project is to introduce students to plant-based food and show them how to turn it into healthy and delicious meals.

Cooking classes are for elementary school students (5th to 8th grade). In an informal way and with plenty of talking and having fun, these classes teach students the basic facts about plant-based nutrition and offer practical skills of how to cook. Students participate interactively from the beginning till the end of each workshop. Food prepared in the workshop is eaten afterwards which offers great opportunity for additional questions and hanging out with friends.

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The healthy plant-based cooking classes are led by Anita Euschen, translator, long-standing member of Animal Friends and experienced cook. When she was little, she learned to cook by helping with meal preparation. She acquired additional knowledge and experience in a hotel management school in Berlin and managing her own vegetarian restaurant and catering. Preparing healthy meals for family and friends is something she really enjoys and she especially likes cooking for her sons who are very good cooks too because she didn't miss the opportunity to include them in the most important human activity - cooking. Her goal is to encourage children to make their own food and to get to know meat and dairy alternatives, to spark their culinary creativity and introduce them to a playful world of food preparation and discovering new recipes.