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Farm to fork: Boise Urban Garden School teaching kids about cooking, gardening, and nutrition

Posted at 6:17 PM, Jun 04, 2024

BOISE, Idaho — The Boise Urban Garden School is hosting camps to teach kids more about gardening, cooking skills, nutrition and more. The course involves learning recipes using things picked from a community garden.

  • Camps are a week long and take place through all 12 weeks of summer.
  • Kids will also learn about nature in the garden such as types of plants, bugs, how things are grown as well as harvest their own lunch.

(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)

From Farm, To fork.

"Tell me what's on the menu today?" I asked.

"For on the menu we have some delicious veggie burgers. We have some fritters," said John Boehm, student at Boise Urban Garden School.

John Boehm is one of the many students at the Boise Urban Garden School, where kids learn about cooking nutrition and gardening all at once.

"I was really excited, because I would get to learn how to cook all these amazing meals and there would be the garden, like right there, that I could get the materials from," said Boehm.

The kids learn recipes, how to prepare food, how it's grown, and learn alongside others away from technology, which counselor Ava Webster says is a huge focus at the camps.

"I think it can also help kids make friends. Like the kids might each other yesterday and they're already, like, hanging out with each other and they showed up today and the kids came and hugged each other because they're super excited to see each other. So, it's like 'aww,' it's so sweet," said Ava Webster, Counselor at Boise Urban Garden School.

Webster took this class as a kid and is glad to be involved now as a high schooler.

"It's really fun to see the kids, like, do things that I used to do, and I just want to make the experience special so that they can feel how I did when I was little," said Webster.

"I came here because I love cooking, and then expanded my love for cooking. So, I think it can grow hobbies and interests and like I said hands on learning," added Webster.

And, if the good food was good enough to join, the impact on others is something both Webster and Boehm say is worth it.

"Getting to see all the little kindergarteners' faces, like happiness, when they get to see what food you made," said Boehm.

"It's fun getting to learn alongside them. So, that's really cool and then they look up to me too which I think is so fun," said Webster.