Malverne Youth Board learns culinary skills at Crossroads

School’s out — what now? The Malverne Youth Board has made it their mission to make sure kids stay engaged and having fun during the summer — without sitting on their screens.

“It’s super important to keep the kids active,” said Trustee Carl Prizzi, who is the liaison for Malverne Youth Board. “Get them away from video games and stuff, and get them outdoors and enjoying our beautiful village.”

“Just keeping kids busy and active and inspired throughout the summer,” he added.

The Malverne Youth Board, an organization run through the Village of Malverne and led by co-chairs Kathleen Casal and Dawn Hayes, is a collection of parents who want to help come up with creative activities that keep kids engaged with their community and the world around them. They run movie nights and craft days, a tennis program each fall, and are responsible for the beloved and oh-so-adorable Ragamuffin parade every Halloween. The Malverne Summer Recreation Program is also a product of the Youth Board. Recently, they also organized a field trip to Hempstead State Lake Park where the kids learned about pond ecology.

“We try to think of different creative things for kids to get outdoors that are educational as well, and also keep them healthy and fit,” Prizzi said. “That’s what we’re all about.”

Last week, the Youth Board worked with Crossroads Farm on an event where kids could get their hands dirty — literally. Crossroads Farm hosts a culinary program for 6 weeks during the summer, and they dedicated a special session on July 26 for the kids. The kids harvested, cleaned, prepared, and chopped the home-grown vegetables on the farm. At the end, they had a salad that they made themselves to enjoy.

This isn’t the first time Crossroads Farm has worked with the Youth Board to organize fun activities for the children of Malverne. They’ve hosted tie-dye activities, and continue to work with the Summer Recreation program to organize field trips where kids can learn about growing their own food.

“The whole mission of the farm is to be educational, to teach the youth about our food systems and where our food comes from,” said Prizzi, who also volunteers with Crossroads. “A lot of people, they just go to the store and they buy food and take that for granted, the fact that food is grown, and there’s people behind the scenes that bring that food to you. So the educational aspect of the farm is essential in my mind — teaching the youth about how food is grown in general, and the importance of eating your vegetables, the fact that the farm is all organic.”

The event does more than give children the opportunity to connect with the journey of their food from being grown, to harvesting, to preparing, to finally ending up on a plate in front of them — it gives them the opportunity to connect with each other. By spending time in nature and away from their screens, the kids are able to foster closer bonds with one another.

“I’m a big proponent of getting kids back on the playgrounds,” Prizzi said. “It’s nice to just disconnect them (from their screens), have them interact with each other and enjoy each other’s company as well. It creates this social dynamic, which is very important nowadays.

“I feel like with social media and everything, kids get wrapped up in all of that, and they become antisocial in a way. They’re relying on technology a lot. So this gets them to interact and communicate directly together.”

Those who are interested in signing up for a Malverne Youth Board event can check out the calendar at the village website, MalverneVillage.org. Those who are interested in becoming more involved with the organization itself can email info@malvernevillage.org, or Prizzi at CPrizzi@malvernevillage.com.