Author: jstein

This summer the ReBel crew is spending a lot of time at Comegys Community School mentoring kids for Cooking Crew Academy. It’s a very engaging and important part of what we do at ReBel Ventures. If you aren’t familiar with what Cooking Crew Academy is click here and here. Why is Comegys Cooking Crew Academy Important? Cooking Crew Academy is important because… It teaches kids about healthy eating It introduces kids to fruits, vegetables, spices,...

The theme of our second week of the Rebel summer was opportunity. On Monday we welcomed 4 new high school students to the Rebel crew: Jade, Shannon, Mikey, and William. The Rebel crew is the biggest it's ever been. We are 12 high school students and 9 mentors. We all bring unique and diverse perspectives and skills to Rebel Ventures. Jade worked with Rebel Ventures for 6 weeks in the summer of 2015, and then joined a different...

Hi, my name is Tre'Cia and I have been working with Rebel Ventures for quite some time. I am the leader of the crew. My experience as a leader has been a very interesting, hardworking, and fun experience. Being a leader at Rebel has taught me a lot. It has helped me become more responsible and dedicated to my work. Some of my duties as a leader are to lead weekly staff meetings, conduct the Rebel Review, keep everybody on task...

Our mission at Rebel Ventures is to create healthy deliciousness with kids in schools. As we work to accomplish this mission, we take a lot of pictures. These pictures document our progress, our victories, and our failures. We learn from the pictures, we are inspired by them. Each week a Rebel crew member in the Design department reviews all the pictures we took that week and organizes the best into an album we call Action Shots. The...

We have new mentors joining us this summer! They work with Promise Zone, a holistic anti-poverty initiative, meaning that it addresses all direct and indirect issues that create and perpetuate poverty. Many topics they deal with fall under this umbrella, including: neighborhood empowerment, crime, financial literacy, City policy, and health. They are participating within the Education focus area. They worked in the West Philadelphia school district this past year, helping students with college/career readiness. So inspiring! I...

[caption id="attachment_1589" align="aligncenter" width="274"] Brittany holding her favorite bar of the four she tried last week.[/caption] Yesterday, the entire crew had a great big friendly competition at Comegys Elementary School. Before we did that, we all tried chickpeas with different spices. The purpose was to create our own barbecue sauce. It all revolved around a fun program that exists in the university assisted community schools- fruit stands. Twelve members showed up to take part in this...

Hello everyone! Last week, I spent a lot of effort designing labels for a new product of Rebel Ventures. Why? Because it's summer time and the sun is heating up! Summer camps are starting in West Philly schools in two weeks and I can hardly wait to cook and clean with the kids and teach them about our healthy deliciousness values.It's time to cool down with our new summer treat. Can you guess what it...

We have two new prospective ReBel crewmembers that have been joining us in the kitchen and in our meetings for the past few days. Meet Nasir and Nyeem. They are both high school students that have worked with the Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative before.   They were a really big help in the kitchen last week! They sped up the time it takes for us to package bars! In our full crew meeting, they helped us with new...

Stressed spelled backwards is Desserts. ReBel Ventures has officially started packaging our amazing fruit-filled cakes. When most people think of cakes, they think that deserts are delicious. Oh boy, these square bundles are so delicious! [caption id="attachment_1560" align="aligncenter" width="288"] Our beautifully packaged ReBel cakes.[/caption] Last Friday, we brought several cakes to Comegys Elementary School. I worked with the fruit stand crew where we decided to try a new tactic. We made the usual smoothies with kiwi, strawberries,...

On Monday, I took a trip down to Comegys to help out the kids with Cooking Crew Academy after school for the first time. I am a huge foodie and love cooking, so I was excited to see what all the hype was about! Cooking Crew is a food education activity where students create a meal to serve to their peers. Not only do they get to fight over which ingredients to use in their...