Waynesboro student co-founds nonprofit kitchen skills class
Families can now participate in a online cooking class thanks to a central Pennsylvania woman and her love of education.
Sue James of Waynesboro, saw an opportunity during the COVID-19 pandemic to teach children valuable life skills from the safety of their own homes by utilizing video conferencing software.
“I started this program in 2019 to help children feel empowered in the kitchen and for them to understand how food affects us not only physically, but mentally and emotionally,” James said.
“My 20 years of working in child care showed me that so many children live the ‘fast food’ life, and have little opportunity to learn kitchen skills. And, unfortunately, a diet of fast food leads to many problems in these three key areas. Also, kids love to experiment in the kitchen so it’s a great place to learn, serve, and yes, clean up after ourselves.”
James along with her co-founder, Eve Dickey, who is 11 years old, started the cooking club. “Soon, other children wanted to come to my house to cook with Eve and I. We had five or six attendees after school every third Thursday of the month,” James said. “To keep them excited about cooking, we would vote on what to prepare the next month. The children loved it, great food, learning, and fun.”

Dickey, who is a student at Waynesboro Middle School, first had an interest in cooking when she was trying to help her mom, Emily Dickey, cook breakfast.
“We were trying to cook scrambled eggs and my interest in cooking just grew from there,” Eve said. “Cooking has always been something in my life, on both sides of the family, everyone cooks.”
Eve’s love of cooking was reinforced by her longtime babysitter and friend who Eve respectfully calls, ‘Ms. Sue,’ who took her interest and built on it over the years while she was watching her.
“We started cooking breakfast one day and just kept going, by the time we knew it we had made a full breakfast with scrambled eggs and pancakes,” Eve recalled. “Ms. Sue has babysat me since I was a kid, [James] has become more like my best friend now, I still go over to visit with her whenever I can.”
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For Eve, starting a nonprofit is just another stepping stone, according to her mother, Emily Dickey. “She is just one of those kids who has the mind of an entrepreneur,” the mother said. “I am in no way a gourmet cook, but she has such a support system through Ms. Sue and my parents and my husband’s parents that it has built her confidence. In reality, so many memories that Eve has made with people have been in the kitchen; she surprises me every day with her confidence and ideas.”
Eve added that, “I want to spread my love of cooking with other kids in the community and this is a great way to do it.”
In March, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, James canceled the in-person classes due to safety reasons. “I really thought SueChefs would not survive COVID-19 being a new start-up and with the students struggling to adjust to school online and all the changes required for them and their parents,” James said. “And frankly, my husband and I had been covering all the expenses for SueChefs, and our situation changed also with the COVID-19 pandemic.”
For James, cooking is just one piece of the puzzle that children need to to learn how to do. “I love to provide children the opportunity to self-regulate and feel empowered, so the students decided to call themselves, the SueChefs; a play on the French culinary word for a chef’s helper, a Sous Chef,” James said.
“We set up some team guidelines and began to make plans for our future and what the SueChefs wanted to learn in the kitchen. It was fun to assign a food theme each month, and I would gather supplies then pick the children up after school.”
Just when things looked dim for the up and coming chefs, the Alexander Hamilton Memorial Free Library reached out to James looking for online programs.
“It never occurred to me that we could have SueChefs online, but with the library’s help and tireless attention to our program, we were successful,” James said. “We ordered a few custom aprons, decided on a logo and color scheme and we were off and running online cooking class.
“Our SueChefs practice social distancing as we broadcast and we talk each month about the importance of washing your hands and other healthy habits to emphasize this to our young viewers. Also, we have our recipe posted each month by the library, Main Street Waynesboro, and other social media pages. This way, our online SueChefs, know what ingredients and equipment needed to cook along with us.”
Since becoming an online program, SueChefs has gathered a Facebook following of over 500, developed a website, filed for their nonprofit 501c3 status and joined with Patriot Federal Credit Union as a sponsor.
“At first doing the cooking class online on Zoom was a little weird looking at the cameras, but I got used to it. The class has taught me how to try new foods, and it teaches kids how to be safe in the kitchen,” Eve said.
“We are so proud to be associated with Patriot,” James said. “Our program can keep the commitment to offering SueChefs.Org free to all our SueChefs so your child will never pay to attend SueChefs.Org.
Looking toward the future, James is hopeful that more children in need attend the program and learn healthy food habits and kitchen skills.
John Kilduff, Corporate Affairs Officer for Patriot Federal Credit Union shared his thought on the cooking program. “We thought it sounded great, and we are all about helping 5013c’s and kids,” said Kilduff.
“We gave SueChef’s a donation to help get them off the ground. We think at Patriot that it’s a great thing they are doing to help keep kids doing positive things and keep them creative.”
Long-term plans for SueChefs is to continue online until it is safe to have classes again in person and then to hold their classes at the Alexander Hamilton Memorial Free Library.
“Eve and I dream of offering more than one class per month, and eventually, SueChefs.Org would love to have a location in downtown Waynesboro,” James said. “That’s the best thing about working with kids, they see no limits to success and if you dream along with them the sky’s the limit.”