ENTERPRISE — If you passed by Building Healthy Families on Thursday morning, July 22, you might have thought you were passing a new bakery in town.

In fact, the smell of baking bread was coming from the 12 loaves of bread made by the campers participating in Building Healthy Families summer enrichment program for youth in grades K-3.

The program activity Thursday was Bread in a Bag and making butter. The instructors for the activity were Ann Bloom, Oregon State University nutrition educator and Katy Nesbitt, a parishioner at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church and coordinator of its community garden.

Prior to starting their bread dough, the campers learned about how yeast needs to “eat” sugar while it “grows” after being activated by the warm water. Campers watched as bubbles formed when the warm water touched the yeast. They learned that with the addition of salt, the yeast stopped “growing.” Then the dough got to “rest” from kneading while it rose before it was baked.

The 12 participants worked in pairs to mix flour, yeast, oil, salt, sugar and water into a gallon plastic bag. Each person took turns working the mixture in the bag until it was thoroughly mixed. Then there was a whole lot of kneading going on as the dough was removed from the bag, split in half and each person kneaded his or her own dough until it was smooth and uniform. The dough was placed in small individual aluminum pans to rise and then baked. Each child had their own loaf of bread. While the bread was baking, the pairs worked at shaking heavy cream to turn it into butter for their hot bread.

The OSU Extension Service and St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church have worked together to deliver nutrition and gardening curriculums to the alternative education high school and Head Start. This summer they offered to provide two food related activities for the Building Healthy Families day camp.

“Ann and I want to make gardening and cooking fun and accessible to kids of all ages,” Nesbitt said. “Everybody eats, but we know healthy minds and bodies begin with healthy food.”

The pictures speak for themselves. The bakers seemed to relish the bread they made as they dived into the hot loaves smeared with homemade butter.

Maria Weer, director of Building Healthy Families said of the activity and the children’s response, “They were so engaged. I love it when our partner projects come together for such a success! Hearing a kid shout, ‘I make the best bread ever!’ says it all.”

Now, where’s the jam?