By Michelle C. | October 1st, 2025 

Every holiday season, we hear a familiar question from families: “Why doesn’t Raddish include ingredients in the kit?” It’s a great question — and the answer strikes at the heart of who we are and what we believe kids need when it comes to learning, cooking, and connecting in the kitchen. 

At Raddish, we’re not a meal delivery service. We’re a culinary education platform for kids, designed to help families build lifelong skills and meaningful memories together. That means every recipe, activity, and tool we create is part of an intentionally crafted learning experience — one that goes far beyond simply following a pre-measured recipe. 

Including ingredients might make cooking faster, but it also removes the opportunity for kids to truly learn. Our mission is to help children understand the food they eat, feel confident preparing unfamiliar dishes, and experience the satisfaction of creating something from start to finish.

By having families source ingredients, children can:

• Explore new foods and build familiarity with fresh, whole ingredients 
• Become comfortable navigating grocery stores 
• Learn how to select produce and compare options 
• Understand where ingredients come from 
• Build ownership over the entire cooking process 

These experiences deepen their connection to food and heighten their confidence in the kitchen.

One of the most important parts of the Raddish method is skill development — and that starts long before stirring, sautéing, or baking. Kids practice essential life skills when they:

• Measure ingredients 
• Follow step-by-step directions 
• Use gross and fine motor skills 
• Organize what they need before cooking 
• Plan and prepare a shopping list 
• Manage their time 

These are core components of culinary literacy — and they only happen when kids engage with every part of the cooking journey.

We understand that families are busy, especially around the holidays. So we’ve made ingredient gathering as easy and stress-free as possible. Each kit includes a laminated shopping list, built for convenience and durability. Our recipes are developed using widely available ingredients, so you won’t need to visit multiple stores or search for specialty items. We also want to give families the flexibility to substitute ingredients to accommodate allergies and other food sensitivities.  

Each Raddish Kids Club membership comes with free access to our digital library, Raddish Plus, which makes shopping even easier: each month includes an Instacart-linked shopping list. With one click, you can add everything you need to your cart — perfect for the weeks when getting to the grocery store simply isn’t on the agenda. 

Raddish kits are designed to bring families together, spark curiosity, and teach kids real-world skills they’ll carry for a lifetime. Leaving the ingredient gathering to families isn’t an oversight — it’s an intentional choice that reinforces our mission. 

By involving kids in every step, from planning to shopping to cooking, we’re helping them build confidence, independence, and a genuine love of food.