Karis Nesbitt, 9, chowed down a peanut butter and Spam cookie Saturday at the Hormel Historic Home as she guessed at Spam facts with her mother, Denise.

Karis said she couldn’t even taste the Spam, except “the big chunks.”

The two, along with brother Cameron, 11, and father Jarred, attended the first Spam Kids Festival Saturday, which sought to teach the younger generation about Spam. The event is the first in the History for Half-Pints series. HHH Director Holly Johnson said the event was two-fold — along with teaching about Spam, it was also to attract younger families to the HHH.

“As far as the Hormel Historic Home goes, we’re trying to gather interest from the younger families,” she said. “We don’t always get a lot of interest from the younger people, young kids, because of what it is. So we thought we’d try to start some programming to attract the youngest of the citizens, if you will. So it just kind of grew from there as a Spam fest of sorts geared towards kids.”

The open house event saw more than 400 people attend.

HHH board member SarahLynn Zaboral said the turnout was better than they expected.

“It’s been an amazing turnout,” she said. “We were not expecting this big of a turnout, and just thank you to all of the volunteers. We could not do this without Hormel Foods Corp.”

With crafts, games, the Spare Parts band and more, Johnson said they received fantastic reviews and the event will likely be held again.

Cameron Nesbitt enjoyed playing basketball with Spammy.

“He shoots pretty good actually,” he said.

He also enjoyed the Spam cookies. Denise said the event was fun.

“We just thought it would be fun to do and we’ve never sent he Hormel House, so it was a good reason to come out to the Hormel House,” she said.

Zaboral explained organizers hope the younger generation of Austin will learn more about and gain appreciation of the town’s history.

“We hope that they can learn more about the Spam brand of course, and we feel like it’s a big reason this town exists is because of Spam,” she said. “So we want them to be excited about the brand, we want them to be excited about the history of this town, and just a chance for families to come together.”

For 13-year-old Jareth Hill, the festival was one of the best things he’s experienced.

“It was the best thing that has ever happened in my whole entire life,” he said. “It was a lot of fun and I actually learned a lot more about Spam.”

Hill came with his sister and three nephews, who he said also enjoyed the festival.

Johnson thanked the volunteers and Hormel Foods Corp., which donated the supplies and supported the event.

“The Hormel Foods Company has been incredibly supportive and helped us with all the supplies we needed, and two of their brand team were here volunteering,” she said.