The Kitcheneers

The Kitcheneers is the first children's television show devoting an entire half-hour to helping kids learn AbOUT food, cooking and healthy eating. Targeted to a primary audience of children ages seven to eleven, the program features kids showing viewers how to have fun cooking for themselves, their family and their friends. The Kitcheneers has been broadcast in Denver, Colorado on local TV outlets and has produced a loyal following.

A child holding a curiosity about food preparation and what happens in the family kitchen is a Kitcheneer. This culinary curiosity opens the door to the magical place called a kitchen. McKenna will expand on this by interest by bringing children into her magic realm, where not just the kitchen is fired by the imagination but also food itself becomes magical. Kitcheneers do not take food for granted; they expand its qualities in their mind’s eye. The wonderlands of grocery stores, farms and restaurants are also brought to a new life by McKenna in various field trips and guests on the show, particularly the very knowledgeable but eccentric Professor Goodfood, who provides safety tips, nutritional information and general healthy food wisdom in an engaging fashion. Healthy eating is a stable subtext of The Kitcheneers, as the curiosity is guided into food origins, preparation and nutritional balance with an emphasis on discovering nature’s foodstuff and its benefits. For Kitcheneers, healthy food is tastier and more fun than junk food.

The products

The Kitcheneers products include a television show, website: www.thekitcheneers.com, DVD’s of the show segments with extended content, related custom merchandise and a book. This has been built as a foundational company dedicated to kids and their food. A network that embraces the television show benefits from the universe of distribution via the website and merchandising acumen.

The Kitcheneers hostess, McKenna Grace

McKenna is now 8 years old. She landed her 1st magazine cover at age three for Children’s Hospital. At age four, she starred in a fitness video produced by My Gym, shot with a Disney production team. At five years old, she began her cooking host career, shooting the pilot for “The Kitcheneers”. Her results from the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) placed her at a 6th Grade level. In addition to The Kitcheneers, she is an advanced “Company” dancer with Cherry Creek Dance, and enjoys art, fashion, reading, fishing and swimming.

The story

The Kitcheneers is the creative passion of Todd Gehrke. He envisioned a brand called The Kitcheneers that revolves around a children’s cooking TV program, “marinated in fun learning material” complimented with an interactive website loaded with ingredients like separate kids and parents blogs, a recipe list, video arcade and even games for kids to play that have a teaching component blended with the fun.

The Kitcheneers was born in 2007 and has already been on TV in selected areas of the Denver metroplex. This actual broadcasting serves as a successful research project that attracted hundreds of loyal Kitcheneers fans that have actually emailed their support. This strong response convinced Todd to continue pursuing his and his family’s dream. His commitment is reflected by his intense work at scripting, producing and completely funding the project. This is dedication in its sincerest expression. A team of experienced broadcast marketing and production professionals has been added to The Kitcheneers. This group now assembled has a history of success being the rule rather than the exception.

Contemporary

The Kitcheneers is dedicated to healthy eating while recognizing the realities of carrying this message. The professional marketing wisdom of the organization will infuse an authenticity into healthy food concepts while considering the receptivity and learning curves of the audience for maximum impact without being in their face. The audience segments that have a health-consciousness will detect this influence immediately and will become loyal ambassadors for the show and its affiliations. At the same time, those audience groups less sensitive about healthy eating habits will not be turned away, and will hopefully try some of the recipes and techniques and enjoy them. In addition, green-friendly tips and suggestions will emanate from the show without over-powering the audience. All of this is handled in a sophisticated manner to avoid preaching while presenting a healthy attitude about food and cooking.

The Kitcheneers is committed to bringing food and cooking to life for the age seven to eleven target audience. There is a paramount awareness of the comprehension and message discriminating capabilities of these children. This dictates simplicity in the foods and ingredients being featured on the show. Additional details about recipes and ingredients will be available on the website.

The Kitcheneers is a new kids' cooking television show and interactive website that is designed to engage today's youth in an entertaining manner. The recent popularity of cooking shows among kids ages 7–11 has led producer, Todd Gehrke, to use cooking to help young viewers learn about shapes, sizes, colors, food groups, health, sanitation, the origin of foods, math, measurements, quantities, and other pertinent life skills oriented around the daily rituals in the kitchen.

Hosted by 8-year-old McKenna Grace, The Kitcheneers makes kids cooking fun. McKenna provides kids recipes, shopping lists, safety tips, and guides her viewers through every step of preparing healthy, delicious dishes-assisted by Mom or another adult cooking buddy.

The website 1 provides an engaging, safe environment for kids to share recipes, play cooking and food related games like " Food Group Challenge", where kids drag and drop food items into the appropriate food groups, or the " Recipe Game" where kids must follow a recipe to make a cheese omelet. It also provides a great PARENTS FORUM, where parents can share tips and concerns about their child's eating habits.

The Kitcheneers is produced locally and supported by local Denver-area businesses. Episodes have been filmed with cooperation from King Soopers, Sunflower Farmer's Market, Coldwell Banker and Kitchens at The Denver. The Kitcheneers can be watched on: