10.6.2022 Kids Cooking Challenge Registration is Open • Garden Taste Tests • ARPA Grant • Community Volunteer Days
| Registration for the 5th Kids Cooking Challenge is Open! Everyone wins when we combine healthy, fresh ingredients and kids cooking in the kitchen. This popular event is back again, with new mystery ingredients that are sure to challenge your culinary skills and spark creativity. Sign up today for either a beginner or advanced bag of mystery ingredients. This event is a pay as you are able event. Fifteen dollars will cover the cost of ingredients. You can also choose to accept your ingredients for free if that is your need. Our goal is to continue this event in a way that is accessible to all and sustainable for future events. Go to our website to register today! |
| Fall Lessons – Taste TestsExploring our gardens from the bottom up All of our schools have completed their first garden lesson in their three part fall series. Most schools are in the midst of their second lesson. In this lesson students look for a superfood in the garden to add to their own garden fresh salsa recipe.This superfood has more calcium than milk, more iron than beef, and ten times more vitamin C than spinach! Can you guess what it is?During this garden super salsa taste test we heard some great things from students. Here are few of their quotes: “This is better than candy!” Coon Valley 1st grade student. “This is amazing, can I have more!” Hintgen 4th grade student. “Can you share this recipe with my mom?!” SOTA I 4th grade student. “Can we have this for snack in the classroom?!” SOTAI 5th grade student. |
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| Community Volunteer Days Help put the gardens to bed for the winter Thanks to the work of our Operations Manager Sam, interns and summer volunteers our school gardens have flourished this growing season. Now it is time to put the gardens to bed for the winter and we are looking for community volunteers to help! We will host a volunteer work day at each garden this fall. You can find a link to sign up for any of these work days on our website. We hope to see you in the gardens! |
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| Fall Intern Spotlight We are grateful for our partnerships throughout the community. One partnership that continues to help us have a greater impact is through our connections to UW-La Crosse, Viterbo and Western Technical College. This semester we are working with four future leaders who are currently attending UW-La Crosse. This week we spotlight Grace Babb. Grace first started her internship with GROW over the summer. She was such an asset we asked her to consider extending her internship into the fall semester. Due to the seasonality of our work, students often find it beneficial to experience an internship with GROW over the course of two semesters. We are glad Grace decided to join us again this fall. Here is little more background information about Grace: Hometown: Gays Mills, WI School: UWL Major: Public Health & Community Health Education Minor: Biology Why GROW: I love nature, plants, and gardening. My mom always had, and continues to have, large gardens that I have always been involved in. I sought out a position at GROW because I wanted to explore an area of public health that I haven’t been heavily involved in before. I also wanted to help youth create a strong foundation of gardening and other healthy behaviors. One goal: Expand my knowledge in the nutrition and education aspect of public health. Also grow my network and make new connections within the community. Favorite fruit: Strawberries Favorite vegetable: Peppers |
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| Thanks for the support! GROW is a grateful recipient of the City of La Crosse and Federal American Rescue Plan Act grant. These funds are instrumental in our ability to deliver impactful, hands-on, garden based experiences to nourish growing minds and bodies. |
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