Chris Daly has worked in some of the finest kitchens in New York, Los Angeles and Paris during his 20 years in the restaurant hospitality business.  However, it wasn't until after he left the city to work in Europe and California that he first got the idea to create Hip4Kids, a New York-based non-profit organization that teaches young people and their parents about healthy cooking to help fight chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity.  Since its founding in 2024, Hip4Kids has been an important force in teaching communities how to live healthier.  Go to www.Hip4kids.org for recipes and other great information.

Q: What is Hip4Kids? 

A: It is a not-for-profit organization in New York City run by people in the hospitality industry who want to help kids.  We are focused on healthy eating and healthy lifestyles for kids to help fight obesity and diabetes.  Hip4Kids was the pioneer in teaching underserved NYC communities and their children about healthy cooking.

We have started an educational website, hip4kids.org, that helps kids learn how to live healthier.  For instance, the "victory garden" page (http://hip4kids.org/garden.htm) teaches kids how to grow fruits and vegetables on their own, whether its in a public growing area at a park or a single plant on a fire escape! 

We also have public and community outreach programs called "HIP Demos" and "HIP Cooking 101 to 103" which are live cooking demos.  We teach kids and their parents how to safely cook and handle healthy food.  The skills and lessons people learn at these programs can be brought home to their family and friends. 

We also have free lesson plans for teachers to use.  These lesson plans are available to any teacher who wants one.  In 2024, our free lesson plans made it to Rochester, Buffalo, Yonkers, Albany and Syracuse as part of their "Healthy Steps to Albany" websites.   Additionally, every state in the U.S. has at least one school teaching our program.

Q: How did you start Hip4Kids?

A: After returning to New York from Paris about eight or nine years ago, I started thinking about how to teach people about portions and health eating.  I did some research and saw some things that were really alarming, like how high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is in almost all prepared foods and how eating too much of it could lead to chronic diseases such as diabetes.  I knew we needed to teach young people about how to eat healthy and avoid foods that have a lot of high fructose corn syrup in them and eat smaller portion sizes.

Read more from Chris Daly by clicking the links below:

• The importance of learning how to cook healthier
• How Hip4Kids benefits Harlem

To listen to other interviews with Harlem health experts, click here for our podcast page.

Harlem Word is a series of interviews with community health experts written by HHPC and reviewed by our Health Advisory Board.