BY BRANDY TEMPLETON
Participants in the Statesville Family YMCA’s summer camp learned firsthand how rewarding — and tasty — growing your own food can be.
Community Outreach Coordinator Melinda Spencer, who leads the program for middle-schoolers, taught participants how to grow and cultivate vegetables and flowers — and how to have fun doing it.
This summer she also implemented yoga lessons into the camp and focused on utilizing all five senses.
“Our theme this year was ‘Life is a Garden,’ ” Spencer shared on the camp’s final day. “It incorporated the five senses and taught them stress management skills.”
The campers honed in on their senses by practicing yoga and mindfulness in the garden.
“For sight and sound, they noticed all the colorful garden’s beauty and the different sounds. They smelled the flowers we planted, they tasted their harvest, and they touched rocks from our rock garden,” she explained.
On Mondays, the students focused on Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), where they planted and worked in a garden, and then harvested their crops. The group placed their harvest into baskets and distributed them to 30 CSA supporters.
Spencer and her campers planted multiple crops including tomatoes, eggplant, okra, green beans, sweet peppers, and two types of squash.
“This was our first time planting butternut squash and acorn squash,” she said.
After each fruit or vegetable was harvested, Spencer helped students prepare and taste the fruits — and veggies — of their labors.
One day, another teen helped the group by preparing pasta to pair with their vegetables.
“We called it our Cultivation Cafe,” Spencer said. “They enjoyed sharing a meal together.”
The campers also experienced a Monarch Butterfly Waystation. Spencer and the participants successfully hatched six Monarch butterflies and enjoyed watching them flourish in the garden before they migrated.
“It was really cool because they hung out for days in our garden before they left,” she said.
Spencer happily shared what stood out to her from this year’s group.
“What stood out the most were the older crew members who had participated last year or several years ago and how they exhibited incredible leadership skills with the new crew members. They shared their garden knowledge and enthusiastically participated in the new yoga class,” she said. “That kind of unity made it an exceptional summer for everyone!”
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