I want to use this post to share a new update in my ever-evolving, food-project-focused life. It began with this blog. Then the menu consulting (which is beginning a second start.) Then the cooking class at Floyd Light Middle School. And now an opportunity to teach the “food literacy and cooking skills” class at an alternative high school, called Fir Ridge (also in the David Douglas school district.) From this grows the most exciting detail in this action-packed tale…
Fir Ridge is another SUN Community School and the site coordinator there has a strong interest in gardening and food education. She is also passionate enough to write and receive a substantial grant towards these important topics: gardening, land conservation and nutritional education.
Enter Jared Goodman (Good Man Eats)
Through Scott (the SUN coordinator at FLMS), I was recommended as a food educator. The next thing I know I am discussing my curriculum and finding out a way to bring my educational workshop to her school. Fast forward a week and I am sipping tea with the gardening educator. I learn from him that the school has 18 raised beds of an 8×4 size! For those of you who don’t know this – THAT IS HUGE! The amount of food that can be grown in that space is really tremendous.
- We could start a CSA for the community…
- We could sell produce at the farmers market…
- I could teach food preservation classes or provide more cooking classes to the youth…
- We could donate food to places in the community…
- Throughout this amazing process, the students are creating, planting, harvesting, cooking and possibly selling the fruits of their labor.
As you can tell, my excitement is boiling over. I am thrilled by the wonderful possibilities of food education AND the long-term goals of sustainability. If the garden takes off, we can sell produce to raise money that can go into making the project larger and “greener.” I am so lucky to be a part of this new school project. All of this makes my work and teaching so much more meaningful and powerful for the students and the community.
Food revolution – here I come!
Related posts:
- Guess Who Received a $4,000 Grant?!
- Session 1 Complete!
- Cooking Class Conundrum
- The Food Curriculum Project (part I)
- A Future Food Project (or) An Idea is Born
Tags: CSA, education, food literacy, Gardening