Food Program

Food has always been an important part of our lives - the preparation, the idea of coming together in community to eat, and the nurturing aspect of nourishing our families' bodies and souls with nutritious, delicious whole foods.

When we opened our Olivenhain location, we wanted to incorporate these core principles into our curriculum and the daily life of the children.

School Lunch

School Lunch

When your kids come to Kids by the Sea Olivenhain, they will have a nurturing snack and a healthy lunch included. This means that you will simply drop them off each morning knowing all their nutritional needs are being cared for each day.

Our intention is to create both a time and stress saver in terms of the mental and financial load of meal planning and execution, while also nourishing and educating your children.

Enrichment Classes for Kids & Family After School Activities

Part of our food mission is to to educate our community and inspire our our families.

Cooking classes, especially family cooking classes, are an excellent way to accomplish this mission.

It has been proven that if kids are engaged with the cooking process, they are more willing to try new foods and be adventurous in their food choices.

We also know that being a caregiver and cooking all the meals each day can feel repetitive and exhausting. We hope that we can inspire our families to find new recipes and ways to enjoy cooking in their kitchen at home.

Community Outreach

Food insecurity is a large issue in not only our community but also in the world at large. We would like to address this by giving back to our community.

We envision partnerships with local farms to bring CSA boxes and artisan goods directly to our school community. And cultivating our own tiny farm on our Leucadia property to both serve as an educational venue as well as to be used in our food program.

As we expand this offering of our food program, we envision partnering with non-profits that are doing good: local farmers, shelters, and those that are figuring out how to eliminate food waste and get healthy food to those in need.

Our Team

Eliza Martin-Daly

Feast Fairy

Chef Eliza is a Food Network "Chopped" Champion, a professional chef, and an advocate for culinary literacy. Her adventures have taken her from New York City and Chicago to San Francisco and San Diego.

After years in the restaurant industry, she began working as a children's culinary educator in 2015. Since her first class with toddlers, she has been on a mission to reshape food education in schools and communities. She believes it is the responsibility of chefs to pass on the "love language" of food. She has worked with private and public schools, non-profits, and universities to teach children of all ages.

Currently, she teaches culinary classes for elementary and high school students in Oceanside and Vista, leads specialized classes at MiraCosta College, and loves spending time with the students at KBTS. Her 15 years in the culinary world bring a wealth of diverse food knowledge, and love for our own food heritage.

Erin Lane

Overseer of Little Meals & Big Intentions

Erin began her career in food at a very young age working in the front of the house at various restaurants. She quickly realized her passion for food and educating the public on good, sustainable food systems.

She worked at Slow Food Nation in San Francisco, where she worked alongside Alice Waters and Anya Fernald, promoting local artisans and those making a big difference in creating a more sustainable food system. She was able to travel to Italy to participate in Terra Madre, a global network and movement that brings together farmers, food producers, cooks, academics, and activists to promote good, clean, and fair food and protect local food traditions and biodiversity.

Once becoming a Mom, she took her knowledge of good and sustainable food and applied it to her own family life. She saw a big opportunity with children at the preschool age. They want to plant seeds in the garden, watch it grow, pick it, cut it up in the kitchen, create meals, and of course, taste it. With the development of the food program at Kids by the Sea, our hope is that we lay the foundation for kids to value the soil and where their food comes from, learn to cook, try new foods, be curious, and just enjoy good food and breaking bread together.