Give Healthy Food to 462 Colorado Families in Need

We are preparing for another big season of gardening and have some exciting plans in the works. For starters, this past year we built some new connections with schools; this year we are strengthening these partnerships by providing even more garden programming for students. In addition to providing educational programming, we will be building multiple new garden-classrooms at schools for youth to ‘get their hands dirty’. There is much we can learn from gardening; not only about food production, but about insects, the soil, air and water exchange. It’s a place where students can connect with nature. Our goal is to help provide fresh, healthy produce to those in need and to educate and engage the community on gardening and sustainable practices. What better way than to build gardens and get youth involved!

Needless to say, we are quite excited about these budding partnerships and none of this would be possible without your support! We are grateful to be able to continue our mission to educate the community about gardening and healthy food.

We will also be continuing our gardening with individuals with developmental disabilities program (I/DD), our community garden outreach program, and will be hosting multiple youth and adult volunteer groups this year. We are looking to expand our outreach by working with those who are experiencing homelessness to provide container gardens, plants, and educational workshops. We will definitely provide an update for all of these programs in future reports.

Here is one short brief from last fall, about one of our I/DD workshops (with pictures attached).

“The tomatillo salsa day was by far the favorite of all the groups. We did that last year and they requested it again, so that will likely be the one that we do every year while mixing it up with the others. We did plant some tomatillos this year, but they are also amazing volunteer plants that come up in old spots. As long as we cage or trellis the tomatillo plants, they thrive in our gardens whether we planted them or they planted themselves. Everyone has their own preference for spice level, so we made a mild, medium, and hot version of the salsa by making one big batch without any peppers, pouring some into a bowl, then a medium version by blending the rest with a few hot peppers, pouring some of that in a different colored bowl than the mild, then adding a bunch of peppers to the final bit and blending it up for the brave souls who can handle the hot version and putting it in it's own specially colored bowl as well. Some who don't typically eat spicy food decided to be adventurous and try a tiny bit of the hot version, which was very inspiring! It was a wonderful opportunity for our gardeners to enjoy the fruits of their labor through a fun and relaxing workshop. It was a great change of pace and an opportunity to change up our routine.”

Wherever you are located, we wish you well with an environmental full of healthy plants, many laughs, and good times.