Moorestown’s Department of Parks and Recreation offers plenty of seasonal activities for kids to try new experiences with their peers, from baking to arts and crafts to sports.
Chef Katie Sklarow has been teaching kids’ baking and cooking classes at the rec center for seven years and enjoys showing students how to make new dishes.
“We started with an intro-to-baking class and then from there it just kind of took off,” she said. “A lot of the classes that are really popular have a lot of sugar … We do a lot of baking, a lot of cupcake wars … (That’s) probably our most popular class that we teach.”
This summer, kids have made meals such as garden veggie lasagna and burgers with Sklarow, with Jersey Fresh the theme for Aug 3, when everyone made zucchini noodles in pesto with twice baked potatoes.
“We utilize a ton of local stuff,” Sklarow said. “Zucchini, corn, tomatoes – and we get kids trying veggies that they wouldn’t usually try, which is what’s happening with this group right now.”
Cyndi Britton, a parks and rec staffer, explained that the facility receives donated food from Wegmans.
“Wegmans donates quarterly of our pantry items,” she said. “So that’ll be flour, sugar, butter – anything that will last three months in the refrigerator or freezer or shelf. (It’s) great what they’ve done for us.”
Sklarow also touched on fall activities for kids.
“Around Thanksgiving, we do some fun gift-making classes,” she said. “We’ll do gifts for the table … we’ll do some candle making. So we even do non-food stuff in the kitchen.”
Sklarow explained what she likes about teaching different classes.
“ … I grew up in Moorestown,” she said. “I grew up doing Girl Scouts, doing different activities at the rec center, but we didn’t have cooking and now we don’t have cooking in the high schools or middle schools anymore.”
“I’ve seen so many kids get so into it and be here every week … I think the kids really enjoy how … it can almost be therapeutic,” Sklarow added. “I think they find that it can be calming to them in their usually hectic lives.”
For information on all rec activities, visit moorestownrec.com.
