As a sophomore at Pilgrim high school, Karen Salvatore learned that she could “be an advocate without a law degree.” For a woman dedicated to healthful living, this revelation opened many possibilities to help others stay healthy.

Fourteen years ago, Salvatore created a program for kids to learn to cook, eat their creations, and participate in activities to maintain physical, emotional and social well-being. This program, a summer camp called Fit2Cook4Kids, stems from a long, determined journey to make a difference in the world.

At her camp, Salvatore is the Founder, Camp Director and Communications and Social Skills Instructor. Fit2Cook4Kids is a week-long summer day camp offered for four weeks in Providence and one final week in North Kingstown, from the end of June to the beginning of August. Children ages seven to seventeen are welcome to register and experience some of “the most enriching hours campers will spend all summer,” according to the camp’s website.

The camp is focused on cooking, fitness, and social and communication skills to transition young campers into more adult-style living. Through confidence, children become “young ambassadors for good health.”

“These kids now have skills that are valuable,” Salvatore said of those who participate in the camp.

Salvatore of Saunderstown, was raised in Warwick and attended Pilgrim High School. Her father, who was a medic in the Rhode Island Air National Guard, shaped her childhood with an emphasis on health and wellness, which prevailed throughout her life.

She holds a degree in business administration with a major in communication from Babson College. Calling herself a social entrepreneur, a successful business was always in the cards for her.   

In high school, Salvatore won the science fair with a project on smoking and lung health. Encouraged by her freshman year science teacher to participate, Salvatore already suffered from asthmatic bronchitis, presumed by Salvatore through second-hand smoke from her father’s own smoking habits.

“I got so into it,” Salvatore Banzhaf said. Although her project did not qualify for the state fair, she entered it again the following year and made it. From this victory, she was given a $200 prize and invited to the Rhode Island Interagency Council on Smoking and Health’s annual meeting.

At the steak dinner, Salvatore was asked to establish the Rhode Island Youth Council on Smoking. This organization sent high school students to elementary schools to give presentations on the detrimental effects of smoking, a tactic that Saltavore calls “reverse peer pressure.”

However, she was also introduced to guest speaker and attorney John Banzhaf, in which she became infatuated with the idea of law.

“I was completely taken in,” she said. She realized that she wanted to fight for things just as Banzhaf  did.

Out of college in 1978, while Salvatore was working in Washington D.C., a paper was released by a food scientist that elaborated on the truths of production and consumption of American food.

“I’ve got to pay attention to what this man is saying,” Salvatore asserted, though she cannot recall his name. He was a man who felt strongly about his cause, despite what it may have done to his reputation. After the paper revealed the ugly nature of food pathogens and chemicals, Salvatore began to question the decline of American health. She additionally took notice of the incline of American obesity, which was evidently connected to food.

Salvatore asked herself, “When is somebody going to do something about this?” She was tired of sitting and waiting for change while young kids were being fed genetically modified and chemically-induced foods.

In 2005, she created the non profit organization Food and Truth. The organization’s motto is “Performance, Education, Motivation, Organization,” and its goal is to “launch a war” on obesity.

However, for five years Salvatore stood at a standstill. She had her organization, but was unsure of what to do with it. In her eyes, she had crashed, met will a full-blown breakdown. Upon her reading of the book Purpose Driven Life by Pastor Rick Warren, however, she had an epiphany.

The personal guide on spiritual journey and the purposes of life left Salvatore with a prayer to God. “What is my purpose,” she asked Him. She quickly realized that her purpose had been in front of her for five years: Food and Truth.

Just like she did with Rhode Island Youth Council on Smoking, all Salvatore needed to do for change was to start something.

Her first point of contact was John Deluca at the DaVinci Center in Providence. When he confirmed with her that his building had a kitchen, she proposed a summer camp – which would grow to be Fit2Cook4Kids.

His response was uncertain, yet she persisted. A year later, in 2010, he called and asked if she was still interested in his space for a camp, and that the only catch would be the inclusion of a job readiness program. Salvatore agreed.

Fit2Cook4Kids runs Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with about 24 campers in each session and about 124 each year.

“If you want to change the world, talk to the children,” Salvatore said.

Program awarded grant

In 2010, Deluca received a $50,000 block grant through the Mayor of North Providence at the time, Salvatore Mancini. His first thought for the money was Salvatore and her camp.

Because Mancini required a job readiness element for the camp, Salvatore was able to invent what is now the camp’s “Secret Sauce:” healthy and delicious food preparation, fitness and yoga with emotional intelligence, and the integration of social, communication and leadership skills.

These elements allow campers to build confidence while learning to articulate themselves successfully, according to Salvatore. For a camp with children, she claimed it had to be multidimensional.

Fit2Cook4Kids campers work through a daily schedule of challenges, games and lessons designed to develop their independence and personal health. They begin each day by preparing their own breakfast, in which their families are also invited to enjoy.

“That’s important, to prepare, make and share food as a family,” Salvatore said.

All culinary lessons and preparation are done under Rhode Island State Code and focuses on ServSafe basics, which deals with cross-contamination, knife skills and similar concepts. Likewise, the camp only utilizes fresh, local or organic food.

Campers additionally cook their own lunch, with an activity placed in between the meals. Although the activity changes each day, it offers well-rounded knowledge on crucial, developmental topics. Some concern different systems in the body or the basics of safe cooking, and another, for example, teaches a lesson on financial literacy, which Salvatore deems the “key to success.”

Part of the job readiness asset, the financial literacy portion brings in a local banker to teach campers about the difference between savings, checking, debit and credit accounts, as well as other banking necessities.

In early afternoon, campers participate in yoga with a fitness instructor. They also have time for fun, food-oriented games such as Pressure Cooker, a game where campers have forty-five minutes to create a dish with specifically-provided ingredients.

After the first summer of camp, Salvatore was distraught to see her campers leave – not simply because of the connection she created with them but because, now, there were no more $50,000 grants to keep the camp going.

Due to this financial dilemma, Salvatore transitioned the camp to a tuition-based one.

Fit2Cook4Kids’ tuition is $649. Salvatore defends its cost through its definition as an “immersion camp.” By strengthening campers in culinary, fitness and communicative expertise,

Daycare and a lesson for life

Fit2Cook enriches its campers and provides learning in a fun way.

Moreover, she notes that a camp for children under 11 years old constitutes as a daycare; and, broken down, the tuition of Fit2Cook4Kids is around $14 per hour.

“Where do you get a babysitter for $14, that feeds them?” Salvatore wonders.

Salvatore does not get paid for her work. Nonetheless, she enjoys what she does.

“It’s a type of insanity, but it’s a joyous type of insanity,” she admitted.

The camp brings her a sense of purpose which, in turn, provides her with authentic happiness. And, because many campers return for multiple summers, she is able to watch them grow up: a bittersweet feeling when they depart for the final time.

“By the end you got these kids going, like professional chefs,” Salvatore brags. She observes the immaculate progress campers make from their first to their last day at camp, as well as the genuine interest in food they gain by cooking their own meals.

This “Secret Sauce” model that Fit2Cook4Kids upholds have proven to be successful and rewarding. Salvatore has pushed for years about replicating it around the world and gaining the attention it deserves. Early in the camp’s creation, Salvatore wrote to Michelle Obama, trailblazer of nutritious eating for children, about offering the camp to her; this summer, culinary specialists from Johnson and Wales University will be visiting the camp.

She hopes for the consideration to show what the camp can do.

“Learn how to cook, feed your friends, and you’ll be popular,” Salvatore advises past and present campers. Yet, she spreads that message to all through her email tag: “Healthy food is love to be shared.”

Salvatore is seeking more campers for this summer. Summer 2023 Registration is currently open for interested campers on the camp’s website.