UPDATE: EAST LANSING - Stephanie Reuter has had a passion for gardening for a long time.

"I have been gardening since I was a child, because we planted a family garden, and so I remember gardening as I guess, like eight?" said Stephanie.

For her 10th birthday, Stephanie's Dad built her a greenhouse so she could learn what it takes to maintain a garden.

Stephanie remembers, "I basically lived in that greenhouse. It was like my clubhouse from the age of 10 to 18."

Now, Stephanie is sharing her lifelong passion with local area kids in a program called "Grow, Cook, Learn".

The kids start with cooking at "Fork in the Road" restaurant in Lansing, and end the day in the garden, learning about growing food.

One participant from MacDonald Middle School, Joe Draheim, said " It sounded really interesting and I have been familiar with 'Fork in the Road's food before, and my parents, we go to the farmer's market in East Lansing a lot and they have a food truck there and they first got us introduced to 'Fork in the Road' camp. So, I thought it would be fun to come here and cook and garden."

Joe is looking forward to using what he has learned in the garden and spending more time with family once camp is over.

On the next Meridian Magazine, I will show you what these kids are doing with the food from the garden and what they are cooking up at the restaurant.


ORIGINAL STORY: EAST LANSING - First. in a three part series, I will show you what local area kids are doing at summer camp, that most people don't learn until they move out of their parent's house.