Photo Op: Big Y Awards My City Kitchen Food Grant

Organizers and students from came out Saturday morning to the in Meriden to kick off a partnership between the local non-profit culinary program and the grocery chain.

The Big Y, which opened in Meriden last August, will provide $13,000 in food to My City Kitchen. The funding will allow the program, according to founder and instructor Kashia Cave, to increase its 3-4 classes a week to 10 classes a week and expand to do cooking demonstrations for parents and kids at local elementary schools.

"My City Kitchen and its Board of Directors would like to publicly thank Big Y World Class Market for its support and generosity to our organization and supporting a commitment to providing healthy, wholesome foods of the highest quality to students by encouraging them to take a keen interest in the foods they eat," Cave said in a statement.

The Meriden group's focus is on teaching children from 6 - 17 years old how to cook and make healthy eating choices. Classes are on a sliding scale.

"The company was very excited to get involved in this," said store manager Bob Rainville. Big Y has an initiative called "Living well, eating smart," that focuses on customer wellness, and "this just tied in perfectly."

The two groups have another tie, in the NuVal system. The system, created by Yale University's Dr. David Katz and developed along with other medical providers and nutritionists, scores different foods from 1 (worst) - 100 (best) based on nutritional value. Big Y price tags also have a NuVal score on them for customers to see. Katz will be speaking at My City Kitchen's in Hartford on March 31.