by Lindsey Rieck, AmeriCorps Food Educator
During my first garden lesson at Geneva Elementary, one 3rd grade student rejected my offer of freshly picked kale from the garden during our class taste test, saying, “I don’t eat raw food.” A few weeks and a couple classes later, I saw that same student trying Swiss chard, and liking it!
As a food educator, seeing this student eating “raw food” is a small but meaningful example of how gardening and cooking education helps kids break out of their usual food norms and learn to make healthy choices.
Did you know it costs just $5 a month to cover the costs of food education of one child for a full school year?
When kids learn to love healthy food through gardening and cooking, they’re also building healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime.
Common Threads has a vision of healthy food education for all kids. We currently garden and cook with over 6000 kids annually. With your help, that number can continue to grow.
Between now and the end of 2018, we’ve set a goal to engage 200 new $5/month donors. One of them could be you!
What price would you place on growing good eaters? As part of our Gimme 5 campaign, please consider:
- Signing up to give $5 per month
- Reaching out to 5 of your friends to tell them why you care about sustainable food education (and encourage them to join you in supporting food education for all kids.)
- Taking 5 minutes to share your story on social media of why you care about healthy food.