The Inside Scoop
How does Feastly work with local chefs?
Feastly allows chefs to have a medium and to have a platform for which they can prepare meals and really express themselves through food. Feastly provides the marketing and the venue for the chefs, so the chef gets to just focus on creativity and the execution, then Feastly does the behind-the-scenes aspect of it, getting them the audience.
How do Feastly and Sprouts work together?
Feastly has been generous enough to allow Sprouts to go into these pop-up venues and allow campers to have free reign, to execute recipes, to learn, and to be in these alternative spaces and appreciate food within that context.
What aspect of Sprouts made you interested in being part of summer camps?
It’s the concept of food literacy; I believe that it’s really important for people of all ages to have an understanding, and think a little bit deeply, about where their food comes from, how it’s prepared, and how it affects their body. That drew me to this concept of culinary education.
Tell us about a chef you cooked with at a Feastly location.
Eric Pascual from Eats By E; when he cooks with the kids, it’s almost like his mother cooking with him. It’s interesting to see how that food story gets passed down generation to generation, and it’s beautiful that through a camp like Sprouts, food that’s so close to Eric and his heart and his family can be shared with students — the potential next generation of chefs — and really open up their eyes to these flavors, these cuisines, and also to the history that’s associated with it.
What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned by working at Sprouts?
I have often been astonished with how knowledgeable and thoughtful a lot of these campers are in terms of food and agriculture. It’s really encouraging in terms of the next generation and the hope that we can shift the way we view food societally into something that’s hopefully more healthful for the environment and the individual.
