Wash U’s Camp Kumquat gives kids an early environmental education…on the farm!
- by tribe
Student run gardens and farms, such as Washington University in St. Louis’ Burning Kumquat, have gained a tremendous amount of popularity in recent years. Last summer, to a lucky group of St. Louis kids, the Burning Kumquat was known as Camp Kumquat, a three week, free of charge camp that provided a “crash course in farming and environmental education”.
The two noble and motivated Wash U students who created Camp Kumquat demonstrated that student run gardens can be used to not only benefit those on campus but to educate the surrounding community about sustainability and healthy eating, while enabling everyone involved to have a great time. Campers learned to garden, cook their own meals, and reconnect with the way in which their food was grown.
Bon Appétit at Wash U was so impressed by Camp Kumquat’s mission that they asked to donate daily lunches for all campers, complete with a list of all of the ingredients used and where each ingredient came from so to help further educate the campers about food origins.
Take a look at this wonderful documentary, filmed over a period of a week at Camp Kumquat during the summer of 2009.