Active Volunteer of the year Tara LePage is center, in a red shirt, at her Kids in the Kitchen volunteer placement.

A highlight of our year-end General Membership Meeting is always recognition of our outstanding volunteers. TheVolunteer Recognition Awards are presented to one Active, one Sustainer, and one New Member who in their current placements go above and beyond their placement requirements and embody the mission of the Junior League of Boston. This year, we are pleased to recognize Tara LePage, co-chair of Kids in the Kitchen, as our Active Volunteer award recipient. The text below was submitted as part of her nomination for the award. Congratulations, Tara!

Tara has been a dedicated volunteer with Kids in the Kitchen (KITK) for the past 4 years, co-chairing the program for the past 3. She is hands-down one of the strongest program chairs I’ve come across in my years in JL Boston. The role of a community program chair requires immense organizational and interpersonal skills; managing volunteers, students, parents, school staff, curriculum, field trips, outside speakers, food supplies, transportation and more. Tara, along with her co-chair Julie Gal-Or, expertly manages these program elements in an effective, engaging and impactful manner.

Tara and her co-chair Julie Gal-Or created professionally printed KITK recipe books for program participants.

Tara is incredibly organized, reliable, full of enthusiasm, and tremendously dedicated to the program. She and Julie run KITK like a well-oiled machine. They have wonderful rapport with participants, parents, volunteers and the staff at Boston Renaissance Charter School in Hyde Park, where the program is held. Under Tara’s leadership, the program has thrived. She and Julie developed professionally printed KITK workbooks for their participants, complete with healthy recipes and fun nutritional activities for the kids to use at each session.

The sessions Tara and Julie plan balance physical wellness and adolescent nutrition and education, and have included:

• A Zumba class + “one food many ways” workshop
• An Urbanity dance class + scavenger hunt in grocery store to promote shopping around the perimeter vs. inner aisles (healthy vs. unhealthy food)
• A field trip to Boston Public Market for a pasta making class & taste of local food vendors.

The program serves 18 girls grades 3-5, all of whom are consistently excited to attend the KITK sessions. Tara and Julie also hold a year-end session that includes a celebratory lunch for parents and guardians of the girls, which has been a big hit.

Tara is always quick to lend a hand and help out with JL requests from Community and other committees. For example, her program was one of the only ones to supply student recipes and signed cards for the Gala, stay late after a session to give members a tour of KITK on the Placement Tour, supply photos of the program for Communications, and to give thorough, regular updates of their program in writing to the Community Council. Tara has also been an immensely helpful mentor to the JLB Arts chairs at BRCS, both of whom are new to their role/program/school and received lots of guidance from Tara.

Tara consistently goes above and beyond her placement requirements and truly embodies the mission of the Junior League of Boston. She is truly someone we can count on to deliver top-quality programming to participants and volunteers, and I’ve been incredibly impressed with her commitment to KITK.

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The young women of Kids in the Kitchen harvesting eggs

By Courtney Keegan

Each year, members of the Junior League of Boston participate in community service projects focused on our mission of promoting voluntarism and empowering women and girls. Kids in the Kitchen is one of these projects, which promotes child health and wellness by teaching young girls to make healthy lifestyle choices. Junior League of Boston volunteers are trained to follow a curriculum, which allows children to gain hands on experience selecting and preparing healthy foods and engaging in an active lifestyle. This year, our group in East Boston cooked up a storm, attended a bike safety awareness event, participated in field trips to the farm and grocery store, and took barre and yoga exercise classes. The girls had a blast!

Our farm field trip was a fan-favorite among the young girls and volunteers alike. On one of the first beautiful mornings this spring, following a long and dreary winter, we were excited to pack our lunches and take a short bus ride from the city to Wright Locke Farm in Winchester, Massachusetts. Wright Locke Farm has a rich history. It’s origins date back to 1628, and it is one of the oldest continuously operating farms in our state. Currently, it is a non-profit, community-based organic farm that is owned by the Town of Winchester. Run primarily by volunteers, the farm gives back to the local community by selling its produce at nearby farmers markets and providing educational programs to adults and youth. These programs use a hands-on approach to teach lessons about agriculture, gardening, and healthy eating in a “live” classroom.

KITK participants feeding the goats

We started our morning with a tour of the farm, where we learned about its history, as well as the various crops and flowers it grows. The girls were warm in the heated greenhouse but cooled off out in the field, where they observed farm volunteers tilling the land, row-by-row. Our tour guide taught us about the irrigation systems they use to provide just the right amount of water the crops need to grow. We found out that the plastic and paper surrounding the crops serve as weed control and can help warm the soil, in some cases allowing for earlier planting. Up the hill, we entered a shed with a large washing station where farm volunteers prepare their harvests for selling at local farmers markets two times per week.

Next up, animals! First came the goats, which the girls loved feeding and watching play on the “obstacle course” in their pen. The group was fearless near the farm’s honeycombs, where we learned that nectar is stored in bee’s stomachs before it becomes honey! The baby sheep were new to the farm and were quite shy around their visitors, running to the opposite side of their pens when the girls approached. The chickens were more used to company, having been on the farm a lot longer. The girls helped to collect eggs from the pen and return them to the farmers. Following our animal escapade, we lay out blankets and had a picnic with the veggie and hummus wraps we had brought.

Checking out the veggies they are about to enjoy for lunch

All in all, our trip to the farm allowed the girls to connect a live experience to the daily food choices they make. It was great to link up with another non-profit organization giving back to their local community in a way that helped to further the mission of the Junior League of Boston. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for Kids in the Kitchen during the next league year!

Courtney is a full-time behavior analyst, who has been a member of the Junior League with three different chapters across the country. She transferred to Boston in 2014 and is grateful to be a part of a dynamic and forward-thinking organization.

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