Library Services to roll out new mobile tech lab and culinary literacy programs

Posted On: December 14, 2021

Volusia County Library Services will be gearing up for two new exciting programs – a mobile tech lab for school-age children and a series of family culinary literacy labs. The programs are being funded in part by $107,623 in federal grants that got the County Council’s nod of approval Tuesday morning.

The idea behind the mobile tech lab is to help counteract the impact of the pandemic on education by providing students with enhanced learning opportunities in the so-called STEM disciplines – science, technology, engineering and math. Under the program, the county’s library staff will use a $31,670 grant and combine it with matching funds and in-kind services to develop a technology-based curriculum that will be delivered through a mobile lab.

The lab will travel to library branches, schools and community centers throughout the county, with an emphasis on low-income neighborhoods. It will also provide students in the targeted areas with access to tablets and internet connectivity through a mobile internet hotspot device.

Library Services also will be tapping into a $75,953 federal grant to underwrite a new program called Recipes and Reads - Family Culinary Literacy Labs. The labs – six of them in total – will serve up a comprehensive culinary literacy program that will include such things as hands-on demonstrations of food and nutritional literacy; food acquisition methods; food handling, hygiene and safety; and consumer cost-saving techniques and meal stretching. The program will include a series of workshops.

The culinary labs will be located in the county’s six regional library branches in Ormond Beach, Daytona Beach, Port Orange, New Smyrna Beach, DeLand and Deltona. The labs will be mobile and occasionally travel to the other community branches, neighborhood and rural branches in the county’s library system for special lab presentations and as outreach tools during community events. Each of the labs will be identical, fully stocked mobile kitchen carts with educational materials that will include books addressing issues such as food safety, meal preparation on a budget and how-to cookbooks for children and teenagers.