Check out a Sample of our Daily Food Routines Here:
Breakfast Routine:
As the kids arrive for the day they will walk into a table covered in fruits, seeds, and live herbs that they can touch, smell, taste, choose, and then even use a child-safe knife or pair of scissors to cut up.
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There will be things they are comfortable with such as bananas and apples, and there will be some things they may not have seen before such as foods such as tea, seeds, and spices in their different stages of preparation.
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They will also see things like granola bars (likely that they made the day before), small buns with jam or honey they can spread, or bowls of steel cut oatmeal that they can add things to.
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There will even be a monitored blender where they can put the fruits in with some water and ice cubes, blend it all up, and make a smoothie!
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There will also be a water bottle filling station where campers and staff can get a drink of fresh cool water at any time.
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Getting the Day Started:
After breakfast and cleanup, kids will start their day by heading over to care for their garden and their own personal plants. Each camper will have a choice about what type of plants they would like to grow, and then they will have a choice whether they want to bring the plant home at the end of the week, or let the camp keep it to grow into food in our potted garden.
At the end of the summer, the camp will be throwing a harvest party, and inviting all the campers back for a fun event. We will use the foods we grew all year in our garden for that party!
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Lunch Routine:
For lunch the routine is similar to breakfast, but with different types of foods, and more participation in building a meal to try. Many kids will surprisingly enjoy creating their own salads by choosing their favorite vegetables and cutting them up. But kids will also be offered items to try such as potatoes, corn, noodles, sweet potatoes, peas, beans, and other heavy fiber items that they can also grow outside in their garden at the same time.
As often as possible, kids will be offered the opportunity to prepare and eat the same foods as they chose to plant and grow during their week at camp. This encourages campers and young staff to make the connections between their food and the magical world around them.
The Garden Meals Program
Price: Included
The cost for this program is included in every camp enrollment, and for all volunteers and staff at the Pea Pods Day Camp!
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Our Garden Meals Program is a fun and interactive way for kids to connect their daily routine, the foods they eat, and the way those foods are grown, harvested, and turned into the things they love.
Kids will have a chance to choose, grow, prepare, and taste all types of garden-based foods as they each create two meals a day... and the best part for parents, is the way that kids encourage each other to try new things and new flavours that they wouldn't otherwise touch.
Your kids might actually come homes saying things like "mom, can we have arugula for dinner tonight"?
I've seen a six year old encourage an entire town of kids to eat sorrel!
Now, if you haven't tried it before, then understand that it takes a very acquired taste to enjoy its vinegar-like flavour (I personally do not), but I had kids running to the garden to pick more leaves and chew them down every time they came to play! That experience encouraged me to create a program where kids have an opportunity to try as many new things as possible, together in a group setting. ~A. Morey
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Just to make sure that you know what your children are eating, we also have a daily communication system that lets parents know what each child has tried each day, and how much they ate, and a few other things about camp as well.
Click HERE to check out our daily communications.
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No child will ever be forced to eat or try anything they are uninterested in, and each child will have full control over their own meals and eating. Your child's allergies and eating preferences will be taken into consideration, and we will collect that information after your enrollment.
Children are welcome to bring extra foods, including any meat or dairy items they would like to add to their meals.
Unfortunately, Ontario Camp Regulations require that we only use "low-risk or pre-packaged foods" in our programs, and since our program aims to teach gardening, planting, and harvesting techniques, there will be no meat included in our garden meals program.
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We encourage children to drink water often throughout the day, and extra on days when the weather is very hot.
