Summer camp for nonprofit Urban Roots is all about local food - how it's grown and how to turn it into a meal you can share with your family.
"We have day camps that are a week long and every Friday we pair a local chef with a local farm and bring it all together," said Fayth Ross, Executive Director of Urban Roots. "They teach the kids something new and get them eating these amazing produce items that are grown locally."
The latest collaboration paired onions from Peri and Sons in Yerington with expertise from Great Full Gardens, a local eatery with high standards for quality, home-grown food.
"We're going to teach the kids to, in the blender, put together a little gazpacho, a cold soup," said Juli Scala, Co-Founder of Great Full Gardens. "We'll give them the recipe cards and teach them the importance of learning how to grow their food or recognize fresh grown produce. A lot of kids just don't know where food comes from or what it looks like before it becomes a french fry or something else. I'm hoping to get these kids excited about food, and growing food, and continuing through the Urban Roots program."
The campers are encouraged to share what they've learned.
"We're hearing so many great things from our parents," Ross said. "They'll say, 'my 5-year-old came home today and said, I made gazpacho, and some of the parents will say what is gazpacho?' It's been fantastic for the kids to be able to teach their parents! It's been so much fun being able to partner with local farmers and local chefs and highlight the fruits of their labor."
Urban Roots has a teaching farm on Second Street in Downtown Reno. The nonprofit is in the middle of a campaign to build an onsite kitchen so they can provide a true farm to table experience there.
"This summer we have been focusing on cold dishes but it will be amazing as soon as this is funded to create hot meals," Ross said. "Urban Roots is about changing the ways kids eat and learn; we're growing healthy bodies and our community through garden-based education so it's been great to get the kids excited about not only where their food comes from and how to grow it, but how to prepare it into something yummy."
More information: https://www.urgc.org/
