Aimee Linton

Grantsville, Utah
General Studies
Leadership Track

Serving Up Freedom

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Youth For Freedom Midwest or YFF Midwest is the name of the camp I worked at. YFF Midwest teaches youth ages 12-19 how to respect themselves as well as others and be free in how they live their lives. This camp also teaches youth the value of themselves and others. Youth that attend this camp often have a better outlook on life after the camp is over. YFF Midwest is held usually once a summer for three days. 

 

Serving Up Freedom was a great experience. I was the head chef for YFF Midwest. I cooked all of the meals for the campers and staff out of crockpots. There were about 90 people total that I provided food for. I had to create a menu and grocery list and stay within the budget that the camp provided for me. 

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My Inspiration for this project came from this camp. I had been apart of small events called Taste of Freedom and learned a little about what happens at camp and wanted to be apart of it. I love cooking and thought it would be a great experience for my EDGE project. I thought it would not only help the attendees of camp but benefit me by being at camp. 

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Some of the challenges that I faced with this project is the distance of camp from where I live. I had been living in Utah at the time so attending trainings for camp was often done over video chat. Some of the other challenges with this project is estimating how much each camper will be eating so there is enough food but not lots of leftovers. I also was challenged in how to prepare the food with only crockpots. I had to clean the crockpots quickly after each meal to get the next meal into the crockpots so it would be ready on time. 

 

This project benefited more than just me. I was surprised by how many other people were affected by my project. The camp director kept telling me that camp was not possible without me. It took me a few times of her telling me that before I really understood that without someone to cook the food the camp would not be able to exist. I saw the campers so happy just before eating because of the food that was provided. Even though there was not more than one option for each meal everyone was very happy just to have food. 

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My project was pretty incredible. I was changed more from this project than I thought I would be. Being around the youth at the camp taught me a lot. I was just an observer for most of the activities but I was able to learn a lot about myself and grow. I am more self-confident than I was before this project. I have a better understanding of who I am and how much I can help others in simple ways. I also learned that cooking for a big group doesn't have to be complicated and is often better if it is very simple. Learning how to plan meals on a budget for large groups can help me with any future project with large groups. 

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"You can not see the good in others without having good in yourself"

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