LEWISTON — Youth-Powered Cooking will start offering homemade brunch items for sale during the Lewiston Winter Farmers Market from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 4.

As a new initiative of St. Mary’s Nutrition Center, the youth cooking program is an opportunity for a small group of Lewiston/Auburn youth, ages 14-20, to receive hands-on training in cooking and serving nutritious foods while deepening their connection to their local food system.

As part of the program, youth will participate in a series of skill-based workshops that cover topics such as safe knife handling techniques and following and scaling recipes.

Participants will then have the chance to put the new skills into practice as they prepare food to be sold at the market café. Menus will include a variety of warm dishes and, when available, ingredients will be sourced from market vendors and other local producers.

Lewiston Winter Farmers Market features a variety of vendors and runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. the first and third Sundays of the month until April 19. Proceeds from the café support this and other youth training programs at the nutrition center.

The center’s youth programs create healthy environments for young people to develop their voices within their community as they explore in urban and school gardens, kitchens, social justice workshops and nationwide youth networks. Job skills training happens in the field as youth provide a service to the community— making healthy food more accessible. To learn more, visit www.stmarysnutritioncenter.com.