When it comes to tackling the biggest issues facing our food system, nothing beats getting into the weeds and connecting with our ingredients.
When it comes to tackling the biggest issues facing our food system, nothing beats getting into the weeds and connecting with our ingredients.
Last week, a few co-workers and I spent a rainy afternoon with the Growe Foundation, prepping a local school garden for back-to-school time. Aside from the tinge of satisfaction at seeing my colleagues literally in the weeds, the few hours spent just a few minutes from our office offered a world of perspective—a gentle and gratifying reminder that we’re all in this thing together.
For several years now, the Growe Foundation has been one of my favorite local organizations. Working to develop school gardens across the Boulder County School District, the foundation not only provides access to delicious fresh ingredients, it also fosters an appreciation for where food comes from—and how good real food tastes!
The foundation’s founder Bryce Brown is a wealth of knowledge—about broken food systems, GMOs, the future of agriculture, childhood nutrition, soil health, and more. But his passion for real food, food that's been grown with small hands and watered with the love of a community, is what perhaps has the biggest impact on the schools in which Growe has cropped up.
“Candy!” he exclaimed, as he handed us cherry tomatoes straight off the vine. What he brings to the schools and their students transcends science or politics.
The Growe Foundation offers a Garden to Table program—which you can learn about here. Similar programs are taking shape nationwide, representing the growing desire to return to the roots of our food—and to do it joyfully. You can’t fully replicate that experience of being in a garden or farm, surrounded by the food you’ll be having for dinner that night. But, you can bring that passion to life in a range of ways that we’re seeing from young entrepreneurial brands that are committed to fixing a broken food system. One example that comes to mind immediately is Back to the Roots’ Garden-in-a-Can. (Yes, you can grow organic cilantro in your kitchen.)
Standing in the gardens makes you think about the state of our food system and the companies or organizations tackling it; but it also makes you think about your own experience with and appreciation of food, whatever that may be. When I was growing up, Boulder didn't have school garden programs. But I did have a (modest) garden in my backyard. I think about the baby watermelons we successfully grew one summer, and my mom’s signature basil pesto (I’ve never quite perfected that recipe) that we'd eat when I sat in my "tradition spot" around the table. I grew up with a family that appreciated food and everything that came with it—the conversations, the cultural context, the connections with ingredients and, most importantly, the connections with each other.
Whether healthy school lunch initiatives, school or community gardens, or brands with a mission, we’re getting back to our roots, I believe. And these are the reasons that today, my love of real food—and the impact it can have—is deeper than ever. Thanks to the Growe Foundation and other local organizations across the nation, for making it easier than ever to become part of the movement.
For more info on how to get involved, check out www.growefoundation.org.
