Audrey ’26 and Charlotte ’25 learn strategies for engaging young children while teaching them about nutritious food and sustainability.
This summer we have consistently volunteered at our local farmers market and collaborated with their Club Sprouts program to teach kids about fruits and vegetables, as well as sustainability in Chicago. Throughout this summer, we learned a lot about local foods, farmers, and how to best share information with kids in a unique and interesting way. We worked to help lead activities that would be fun and engaging for the children, while still encouraging them to try new foods and think sustainably.
One of the main challenges we faced was trying to only bring in materials that are sold within the market. This meant that we had to deviate from our original plan for our grant slightly, but also still gave us the freedom and opportunity to make this project a success and help support local farmers. We collaborated on activities involving local foods, while also learning about how to best teach younger kids by engaging them in hands on lessons, asking questions, and encouraging them to try new things.
Our favorite experiences were when we got to work with 10-15 kids at a time through the local preschools and day camp groups as opposed to the typical few. A memorable moment was a morning when we were teaching a group of preschool students about the different parts of a peach and encouraging them to taste it for themselves, with the end goal of them enjoying it and understanding the benefits of purchasing fruit locally. Through this we had to adapt our teaching methods slightly and while engaging so many 3-4 year old children proved difficult in the end, almost everyone was open and excited to taste a piece of the peach.
Overall, working and volunteering at our local farmers market has been an amazing experience and taught us so much about working and engaging with children as well as spreading awareness about sustainability within the city.
