Day Camp in a Bag 

University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension offices are usually busy places in the summer, buzzing with young people learning lots of life skills in day camps that cover cooking, gardening, sewing and a plethora of other activities. The COVID-19 pandemic has quashed all that, but extension educators believe if there is a will, there’s a way. In a three-county region in Northern Kentucky, the Owen/Gallatin/Carroll County Nutrition Education Program Assistant came up with an idea for Day Camp in a Bag. Working with Gallatin and Carroll county 4-H youth development, Family and consumer sciences, and Agriculture natural resources departments, the program served 56 families with more than 150 young people.

Once a week, families picked up a bag of day camp supplies at their extension office. The bag-contained ingredients, a recipe and handouts about nutrition or other information the staff thinks participants might benefit in knowing, including kitchen skills and food safety practices such as washing hands.

One of the benefits to the at-home program is the opportunity for parents and children to bond over cooking. In Owen County, the Day Camp in a Bag was expanded to include gardening. Families received resources to set up the young people with the items they needed to plant their own Victory Gardens. The Nutrition Education Program Assistant also raised basil and oregano plants in her own Victory Garden and shared the plants with the day-campers at the beginning of the series, along with seeds, potting soil and pots provided by the Agriculture department. Information was provided on how to take care of the plants and dry the herbs. Additional tools such as website videos and printed recipes and gardening guides were provided to help all participants be successful in growing the herbs with the goal of encouraging the young people to start a traditional or container garden.

According to two Owen county youth participants, they enjoyed the chance to learn more about cooking. One youth particularly liked the enchilada recipe that was in one of the bags, because it was, “Quick and easy to make.”

Another participant reported that she enjoyed using the gardening items supplied to grow oregano and basil in her own garden and then using it in the kitchen. “I actually picked a bunch of the basil I grew yesterday, and I made homemade pesto. It was really good,” she said. UK College of Ag media staff highlighted the success of the series in a feature article and video http://news.ca.uky.edu/article/camp-goes-home-bag.  

Skills learned early in life continue to be used over a lifetime. Teaching young people how to grow and healthfully prepare food reminds us of the expression: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day…teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. In Owen, Carroll, Gallatin counties and beyond, the Nutrition Education Program is teaching young people vital skills for a lifetime of healthy habits.