NANTICOKE, Pa. -- For most kids, summertime can be a break from learning, but we caught up with some kids in Luzerne County who were at camp that teaches a very important skill: how to make pizza and other foods kids enjoy.
Donning tall chef hats and white aprons, 9 to 11 year olds were busy making pizza inside the Luzerne County Community College Culinary Arts Institute in Nanticoke.
It's all part of a culinary boot camp in partnership between LCCC, the Commission on Economic Opportunity, and Marywood University.
"Here we're learning at camp is how to cook and things like you know like nutrients in cooking and how to stay healthy," explained fifth grader John McGuire of Dallas.
"What does yield mean? How many people are we going to be able to feed from that particular recipe? But it also helps kids to develop language, math, and art skills as well," added chef instructor Kim McLendon.
These junior chefs say what they're learning in the kitchen here is very important.
"Because then you can cook for your family and they won't have to cook," said fourth grader Poppy Mullen of Wilkes-Barre.
"Because if you don't know how to cook, how are you going to? What are you going to do? How are you going to eat?" asked McGuire.
Instructors and these young chefs here tell Newswatch 16 they are not only learning the cooking basics, but they are also learning how to apply what they learn in school here in the kitchen.
"We're kind of applying math so like we can get measurements for different kinds of ingredients for the food we make," explained sixth grader Juliana Konnick of Dallas.
Students say there will be a time when these pizza-making skills will come in handy.
"Because when you grow up it might help you 'cause you can't just make packaged pizza and other foods from packets every day. Sometimes you have to make your own," added Konnick.
In addition to pizza, these kids say they also learned how to make yogurt parfaits, pasta, and fruit salad so far at this camp in Nanticoke.