Frontier Fellow Report: Emily Howe

The Green River Community Center kids and Emily Howe

“There’s a certain lack of control you have to accept when making cookies with elementary schoolers. Baking is generally an art of precision, measuring, and following directions. Baking with kids is closer to chaos, but once you embrace the chaos it can actually be pretty fun. Yesterday, I spent the afternoon at the Green River Community Center teaching the after-school program how to make cookies. It was an exercise in patience for all involved. The kids took turns measuring out and adding ingredients to the bowl, passing it around the circle for each step of the process. Cracking the eggs was by far the most popular, too bad there were only two per batch (meringues next time?). Mixing was also a crowd pleaser. After the dough was completed, we all got a ball to sculpt into the perfect cookie. It was great to see what the kids came up with, one person’s design might influence what their neighbor was working on, and then the whole table would end up with stars. I love watching kids have the opportunity to be creative with their food, it’s a nice reminder that art projects can happen anywhere.” -Emily Howe, Frontier Fellow