You might call Joy Woods Jones the ultimate nurturer.

As project director of the Grandma’s Kids program at Temple’s Center for Intergenerational Learning, she develops after school programs that help children in foster care or group homes settings cope with the stress of being separated from their parents.

At home, she cares for six children, Josef, 21, Daveed, 19, Marisol, 9, Cydney, 8, Kendal, 5, and Troy Jr., 1.

And yet, somehow, she finds time to help foodies from throughout the Delaware Valley make the most of their pantry as studio chef for a recurring segment on NBC Philadelphia’s 10! Show.

It’s no wonder she’s known as “Mama Joy."

"I’ve been cooking all my life,” said Jones. “I am the oldest of nine children, so I did a lot of babysitting, to say the least. I’ve always liked to cook.”

Yet, her appearance on the show came about quite unexpectedly. While watching television one night last summer with her husband, Troy, she heard a promotional spot seeking the next network food star.

Jones knew that she could fit the bill.

“It said ‘Do you like to cook? Do you have a great personality?’ And I’m like “yes and yes,” Jones recalled. “I did a little video with my husband — he taped it on our camera, and I sent it in.

Jones was selected to compete against four other contestants vying for the role during a televised reality-tv-style cook off. She prevailed.

“I found out that I was selected on the way to my afterschool program and I screamed — I’m on the phone screaming my head off. It was so exciting.”

While Jones was comfortable with her cooking skills, being a home chef in a professional environment was a difficult transition, she said.

“I think that (the show’s producers) were expecting commercial-caliber cooking,” said Jones. “They were expecting the commercial cooking energy of professional chefs from a group of home chefs. We had a commercial-caliber kitchen to work in, but it was hard because it wasn’t like what we use at home.”

Add to that the pressure of having Marc Summers, host of “The Next Food Network Star,” evaluate your results. Nonetheless, Jones says the experience was one of the competition’s top benefits.

“Marc Summers was awesome,” she said. “He was one of the people who actually helped select me — so I was in my element. I felt like I was on the Food Network. To have someone from there come out to Philly to see me and taste my food and say he liked it — it was really wonderful.”

In addition to a 10-segment contract for the show, Jones also won cooking classes at the Community College of Philadelphia.

While she’s not ruling out taking a chance on becoming one of Summers’ colleagues through “The Next Food Network Star” competition someday, Jones says her life is too busy to make that type of time commitment at this time.

But she won’t be putting away her apron away just yet.

“I’m writing a funny cookbook about my life in food,” she said. “That’s my plan right now — just putting all my recipes together and writing a book.”