Green Tables News

GROW/COOK/SHARE

The Colorado chapter featured Mayan tamales, hibiscus tea and chocolate on the menu for the fourth-grade class at Fairview Elementary in Denver. Twenty fourth-graders learned how to make Mayan pinwheel tamales from cookbook author and indigenous food expert, Beverly Cox and food journalist, Kimberly Lord Stewart. The students are also preparing to plant a summer fruit, vegetable and flower garden and sell their wares at the Sunnyvale neighborhood farmers market.

FARM/GARDEN TO TABLE

The Denver Urban Gardens group handles the garden aspect. During the winter, the students make compost and plant seedling in the classroom. By July, the students have enough bounty to sell their wares to the community. As continuation in the classroom, the chapter offers cooking demonstrations for students and parents at the farmers market. Through a DUG grant, each student who participates in the garden project gets a $5 coupon each week for fresh produce. The culinary nutrition segment of the program has been so successful that the Directors of Headstart have approached Colorado LDEI about expanding the program to low-income preschools.

For more information about Colorado's "Green Tables" initiative, contact Kimberly Lord Stewart.