A child's menu from the farmer's market...

This weekend is filled with excitement for HALO Center Volunteers and youth living in reStart’s Family Shelter as they get ready to celebrate four weeks of hard work and preparation. In the middle of September, The HALO Center’s dedicated Monday night volunteers (Evan Linville, Magie Hogan, Rachel McNally, Lindsey Ray, and Meredith McGrade) and reStart’s youth began an exciting expedition with food.

Together, the youth and volunteers learned about healthy eating by collaging healthy foods in proper proportions onto paper plates, busting myths about fast food, trying exotic fruits, and creating their own recipe for hummus:

"And though they were skeptical at first, almost everybody loved it. It turned out creamy and flavorful! We had 6 stations set up: lemon juicers, fresh herb cutters (jalapenos, chives, basil and rosemary from my garden), garlic peelers/cutters (the younger kids did a great job pealing, they could work so fast with their tiny hands), and 3 blending stations where they measured the liquids and spices and blended it together. Once it was finished, everyone got to try it with pita chips. The rest was saved for the BBQ!

One cute thing from Hummus night was that a couple of the kids took pita chips dipped in hummus to their parents at the end of the night. They dipped the chip and held onto it until we got into the lobby to meet the parents. They were proud of how it turned out and thought their parents would like it!" - Magie

Youth have created their own recipes, listed out ingredients needed and are bursting with enthusiasm  for this Saturday’s field trip to City Market. They will experience the local food scene for the first time, as well as buy the fruits and veggies needed for Monday’s BBQ.

On Monday, youth will get together an hour and a half before dinner time to prepare these dishes on their special menu:

Parents and family members are invited to arrive at dinner time where they will enjoy the healthy meal designed, bought and prepared entirely by their children.

You can get involved with this special weekend, too! A few more adult chaperons are needed to assist in Saturday’s field trip. If you are interested, please email chelseaherzberg@haloworldwide.org.