Kids With Wide Ranging Backgrounds Take Part In Camp With Culinary Curriculum
DENVER (CBS4) - Children recently arriving in the U.S. get the chance to learn more about their new home and spend time with other kids their age thanks to a summer camp organized by the International Rescue Committee and the YMCA.
"I think it's important because you're learning how to cook," said Almajd Hajdaen, 11. "I usually watch my mom cook and I really like it."
Hajdaen is orginally from Syria. She arrived in Colorado a couple years ago. While at the camp on Monday, she spent time in the classroom and in the garden. Part of the curriculum was created by Slow Food Denver to help students think creatively about cooking and take control of what they can make and eat. The organization is one of the partners that helps to support the camp.
"The kids that we helped bring to the program are refugee, immigrant and asylees," said Amber Baack, youth program coordinator for the the International Rescue Committe in Denver. "They're from all over the world, primarily represented are Syrian children, Iraqi, Afghani and Congolese."
The IRC and the YMCA of Metro Denver created this camp to help the children from all around the world interact with other students who are from Colorado. For some of the camp members coming from regions of conflict, the series of activities and classes with others their age help them build a sense of community.
"A lot of the youth, especially the refugee kids we're working with, haven't had a normal camp or a regular summer," Baack said.
Students made dishes in the classroom using ingredients from Colorado and then spent time outside planting seeds. They also studied the vegetables they've worked with in the camp and examined how they grow in the garden.
"Gardening can help you have more food, you plant seeds and you get food out of what you planted," Hajdaen said.
Hajdaen shared that the lessons she has learned are built around honesty, caring, responsiblity and respect. The camp teaches these core values and goes beyond the kitchen and garden -- students also participate in exercise activities, too. As a junior counselor, she has helped the younger students to complete activities and grown from that experience.
"We should follow those rules to be successful in life," she said. "I've learned to be like patient with them."
Staff say mixing the two groups of students has worked well. The children do not seem to notice their different backgrounds and create new friendships from the experience. In some cases, the children from other countries arrived three years ago and have had time to adjust to their new country. But others have only been in the U.S. for a few months and the camp plays a significant role in their transition.
"It's been so much fun," "I would love to be here every single year.
LINKS: rescue.org/united-states/denver-co | denverymca.org | slowfooddenver.org
