With its Center for a Healthy Lifestyle located in Solana Beach, the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Dieguito is raising money to open a second center at the Griset Branch in Encinitas. The nonprofit needs $125,000 to create the garden the second phase of the project. Photos/Kristina Houck

By Kristina Houck

For nearly five years, children have learned how to live healthier lives by cooking and gardening at a yellow cottage in Solana Beach. Opened in April 2009, the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Dieguitos Center for a Healthy Lifestyle features a teaching kitchen, classroom space and an interactive garden, offering after-school programming and summer camps for children, as well as classes for adults.

Because of the success of the center, the nonprofit organization is raising money to open a second center at the Griset Branch in Encinitas. Members of the public were invited the see the progress of the project during an open house on March 20.

This has always been my dream, said Del Mar resident Barbara Harper, the centers founder. Were hoping to spread this to all the Boys & Girls Clubs across the nation.

To expand its programs, the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Dieguito opened a garden at its Del Mar Branch in May 2011, and another garden at its La Colonia Branch in November 2012. Mirrored after the first center at 533 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, the proposed second center at 1221 Encinitas Blvd. will feature an interactive, half-acre organic garden and commercial-like kitchen classroom.

Amanda Mascia, the childrens chef at the Center for a Healthy Lifestyle, said she is looking forward to teaching cooking classes at the Encinitas branch.

The kids are really energetic and enthusiastic, said Mascia, who currently teaches at the Solana Beach site. She is also creator and host of the Emmy-award winning healthy kids cooking show, The Good Food Factory.

I cook really large healthy meals with them and theyre super pumped. They love it, and I have a blast, she said. Its very hands-on. They do all the cooking and I guide them through it.

To date, the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Dieguito has raised $100,000 for the kitchen. The organization needs another $25,000 to complete the first phase.

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Boys & Girls Clubs of San Dieguito seeks donations for kitchen and garden project at branch in Encinitas