The ASU School of Nutrition and Health Promotion will host its second Camp Crave over the summer, where children can learn about nutrition, fitness and cooking.
“At our camp, children will be exposed to different concepts and types of wellness activities with three main components including a nutrition education lesson, a unique type of physical activity and a healthy cooking class,” said Michelle Miller, camp director and registered dietitian.
In the summer of 2013, 26 kids participated in the camp’s two sessions offered for children in grades four through six. There will be four sessions starting in June this year, which could hold up to 80 campers.
These camps will take place from June 9 through July 11. Two of the weeklong sessions are about “Basic Skills,” where campers will learn about nutrition, fitness and cooking. In the other two sessions about “Advanced Skills,” campers can build off of previous skills covered and learn new material.
Miller prepared basic activities and educational plans for Camp Crave along with Kenneth Moody, an instructional kitchen coordinator who works in the School of Nutrition and Health Promotion and helps with the camp. Sixteen student leaders help run the camp, as well. These students create two nutrition lessons and also play the part of the chef, including doing a cooking demo with the help of Moody, Miller said.
Nutrition major Lauren Pellizzon, who was involved with the program last summer, said there were some kids who enjoyed the camp so much that they returned for the second session right after the first. She said a majority of the kids who attended were a part of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and came from families with a lower socioeconomic background.
“There’s a large population of kids in downtown Phoenix who don’t have access to fresh fruits and vegetables or access to these foods financially,” Pellizzon said. “There’s also people who don’t have the proper nutrition knowledge. There’s a huge need for camps like this.”
Another student involved with the program last year, nutrition major Amy Christman, said Camp Crave was the highlight of her college career.
“If I could sum up the experience in one word, it would be extraordinary,” she said. “Nutrition is so important for children to know about because it’s such a big part of our lives.”
Christman said her role in the camp was to help keep kids on task, make her own nutrition education lessons, prepare a physical activity and demonstrate cooking skills for the students. She said she based her nutrition lessons off Miller’s curriculum, which was influenced by the U.S Department of Agriculture’s MyPlate nutrition guide, which illustrates the five food groups that are “building blocks” for a healthy diet and uses the familiar image of a plate for a preparing a meal.
“It’s so important to know where our food comes from and what food really is all about,” Christman said. “It’s fuel for your body and meant to be enjoyed.”
Miller said the most popular part of the camp last year for the kids was the healthy cooking class, where the kids got to make healthy foods and then eat them.
Continuing this year, campers will cook in an atmosphere like a real kitchen, Miller said.
“The kids get to take part in activities you would generally see on the Cooking Channel or Food Network,” Miller said.
Christman said students last year worked with Moody to come up with various recipes. During the camp, there was a cooking demonstration every day where kids learned how to prepare food focusing on different food groups each day. At the end of the camp, kids compiled all the recipes with the meals they learned how to make into a cookbook.
For the fitness component of the camp, Miller said she tried to incorporate some type of unique physical activity the kids hadn’t done before. The previous year, Miller said the activity the kids participated in was martial arts and the instructor was a student who taught martial arts on the side of his schooling. This year, a parent reached out to Miller interested in holding yoga classes for the program.
Contact the reporter at Ashton.Meisner@asu.edu
