This year, summer camp will be a little different for our campers, but it is no less important. We firmly believe in the educational and personal value of summer camps for school-aged children. Summer camp offers our pantry program families the chance to give their children access to activities that keep kids active throughout summer and build up their self-confidence.

Now that summer is quickly approaching, we have been working hard to modify our traditional summer camp offerings for the youth in our community. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were hopeful that we could still keep our overnight, weeklong camps and on-site day camps on the schedule.

However, working with our traditional summer camp partners, we have developed a modified camp at home schedule throughout the summer.

Specifically, we have been working with our partner Camp Bob Waldorf to provide a virtual camping experience through their online platform and by sending children home with a camp kit box with activities planned over the course of two weeks. We will be working with Create Now, our past art camp partner, as well as providing alternative “take home” arts and crafts activities for our youth. We also are working with our past on-site nutritious cooking camp partner, Leah’s Pantry, on an “at home” version of a cooking camp for our youth.