Culinary Kids Camp
This summer one of our middle school World Changer Clubs led a camp for children at the Lee Walker Heights community center. The club had been learning about global challenges and decided to focus their service on nutrition education and hunger reduction in the Asheville area. They wanted to give children the opportunity to learn about the benefits of eating fresh fruits and vegetables, teach them about new foods, and demonstrate some fun ways to prepare healthy snacks.
Club members worked together to decided what they would teach, prepare their lessons and activities, and recruit additional volunteers when needed. Each day during the camp, one of the middle schoolers led an activity, teaching the children how to follow a recipe, chop vegetables and fruits, and mix their ingredients into something delicious.
Here’s a story from one of our middle school World Changers…
“This summer our World Changer Club put on a camp at Lee Walker Heights called Culinary Kids Camp. Each day, for a week, a member of our group taught the kids how to make something simple, healthy, and affordable. I taught the kids how to make a simple salsa. Many of the ingredients were new to the children. When the younger kids were guessing what the vegetables were there were many guesses that the tomatoes were pumpkins.
I never realized that something I see almost every day would be a new experience for another child. It made me realize some things about myself…
like how I complain about having to run the mile in PE or not eating what I want for breakfast. These kids were so excited to try new things and I didn’t hear them complain once. Everyday they were smiling and couldn’t wait to find out what new thing they were going to eat today. I think having this community center is really important to the kids because they have a safe and enriching place to go after school to do their homework. I’ve learned a lot and I’m excited to go back.” -Catherine D.
From dancing to planting watermelon seeds; trying avocados and orange bell peppers for the first time, new experiences were the theme of the week!
