Creative Discovery Museum will launch their new kitchen exhibit through the first ever Sweet Potato Festival. The Sweet Potato Festival is a one day event occurring on Nov. 14 from 12-4 p.m.

The festival is a part of the museum’s new endeavor to teach children and their families that living healthy, active lifestyles can be both tasty and fun.

Dr. Jayne Griffin, director of education said, “Maybe playing with food is good for all of us after all. Kids are drawn to food especially when they get to experience it in new and different ways. The festival will give kids and adults an opportunity to experience art, science, play, cooking and of course, eating activities with sweet potatoes. Kids who have hands on experiences with foods are more likely to eat those foods, and since sweet potatoes are great sources of Vitamin A and C, this is a great vegetable for kids and adults to learn to eat.”

The Sweet Potato Festival marks the opening of The Museums’ new kitchen exhibit. The kitchen is a fundamental component of the museums’ health initiative, which aims to promote healthy lifestyles for children and their families. The kitchen exhibit was made possible through the sponsorships of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Health Foundation, Newman’s Own Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The kitchen exhibit will be home to a wide variety of educational programs designed to let families discover nutritional eating.

At the Sweet Potato Festival, the kitchen will be holding their own program in which a local guest chef will demonstrate to children how they can create their own delicious and nutritional sweet potato dishes.

As a part of the Sweet Potato Festival, there will be a number of activities and programs designed for children to be both imaginative and hands-on. A local artist in residence will be available for the children to watch as they creatively mold a sculpture out of actual sweet potatoes. Downstairs, children will be given the opportunity to create their own “potato stamp” and “potato-look-alike” art creations.

Furthermore, each child will be given their own sweet potato kit. Each kit will include everything necessary for the child to plant and grow their very own sweet potatoes at home.

Upstairs, children will be invited to participate in a number of sweet potato themed games hosted by a local media personality. These games include sack races, spoon races and a “hot” sweet potato game. Children are able to win a number of prizes throughout these games, which will be given out towards the end of the festival by the host. There will also be a sweet potato buffet available upstairs, providing samples of popular sweet potato dishes. These dishes will include sweet potato muffins, sweet potato soup, sweet potato pie and baked sweet potatoes. However, these dishes are subject to change before the event.

Museum admission is $9.95 for adults and children. For more information, call 756-2738 or visit www.cdmfun.org