High school program brings home economics and business together

At Santee Educational Complex, a program called C.A.K.E. or Culinary Arts Kids Eat is cooking up some pretty tasty lessons.

"I'm making a blood orange arugula salad," said sophomore Casandra Carbajal. "I'm going to make a shaved fennel salad," said freshman William Diego.

Isis Chagolla made zucchini pasta pesto chicken salad. "I used zucchini instead of pasta because it gets more vitamins to the body," said Chagolla. Tony Barrere found grilled veggies and Israeli couscous is a tasty way to slim down. "I used to weigh a lot and now I lost like 30-40 pounds," said Barrere.

This is the fifth year for the C.A.K.E. program which seems a bit like home economics, but founder Melisa Nicola reveals it is so much more than that.

"We're here to teach kids, to inspire kids how to have a healthy lifestyle," said Nicola.

"I didn't know you could relieve stress out of yoga," said Bryan Garcia, a sophomore. It's not only cooking, it's life skills.

"We teach miindful meditation, stress management how to grow hydroponically, organically," Nicola said.

Along with cooking and nutrition, the kids learn about business. Salads are sold for about $3.50 to friends and faculty.

The kids are waiting for a license, having recently applied to sell their salads at farmers markets.