Charlie Cart and Food Literacy at the John McIntire Library   

ZANESVILLE, OH- A mobile unit is cooking up the conversation about food literacy.

The Muskingum County Library System’s Charlie Cart is a full-service mobile kitchen unit that comes with all the essentials for cooking and instructions on how to make amazing meals. Adult Services Librarian at the John McIntire Library Heather Phillips said that the Charlie Cart will be used in adult book clubs and programs for kids in the Snap-Ed Community Nutrition classes.

“There’s a lot of course that goes into cooking and baking that involves literacy because you have to one, read the recipe, understand it, critical thinking skills with that. You have to measure so they’re learning how to get the numbers on their and have the recipe so they get a little math and literacy in their as well so it’s just all around a good thing.”

Phillips also said that food literacy also gives the library a chance to teach the community about nutrition like portion control and what is considered healthy.

“Nutritional learning, what is good for you, what you should be eating, portion sizes, things like that. I think just all around it’s really good that we’re learning how to eat healthy and the class that we’ll be doing soon is Eating Healthy on a Budget so it’s learning how to cook but also doing it with the little income that you have.”

The Charlie Cart and Food Literacy Project was made possible thanks to a grant from The United Way. The Snap-Ed classes will take place at the John McIntire Library every Monday starting on February 27th at 5:30 pm. If you have any questions, you can visit their website at muskingumlibrary.org.