Volunteering with Growe Foundation

At Tundra Restaurant Supply we’re big on supporting our community. We’ve had the opportunity to sponsor fun events like the School Food Project’s Iron Chef Competition for Boulder Valley and the Boulder International Film Festival. Nothing gets us quite as excited though, as getting down and dirty in the vegetable gardens at our local schools.

Enter Growe Foundation, a great local organization committed to tackling the obesity epidemic in our country—the figures are daunting, with nearly one in three children in America are overweight or obese (as reported by Let’s Move!). By educating children about the benefits of healthy eating and environmental stewardship, Growe Foundation hopes to create healthier children, schools and communities. To date, Growe Foundation has implemented 19 school gardens in 6 cities across the Front Range in Colorado.

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Growe Foundation’s program features a three-pronged approach:

  • Education- Provide schools with experiential learning programs that enrich education and teach students about food and the environment.
  • Eating- Help children understand the importance of fruits and vegetables and the connection between what they eat and the health of their body.
  • Environment- help children understand how the health of their bodies is linked to the health of the planet.

So far, the Growe Foundation’s program has had a powerful impact on the community. Data collected from their Garden to Table lesson surveys show that the program is fun for students, motivating to teachers, and inspiring to parents. Teachers even enjoy sampling some fresh lettuce for their lunches!

Growe likes to think of gardens as living classrooms, where students plant, harvest and taste the fresh fruits and vegetables of their labor. The gardens also extend past the soil and into the classroom, where children connect academic lessons in geology, ecology, economics, and even math; last Monday at Louisville Elementary, for example, Growe Foundation harvested 96 bags of lettuce, each weighing from .5 to 2 pounds each, for a grand total of 115 pounds of lettuce.

Tundra has a longstanding relationship with Growe Foundation. After meeting our founder, Michael Lewis, 10 years ago at an event in North Boulder, Tundra has donated equipment (like food storage bags and salad spinners) to Growe Foundation, which is used in conjunction with schools for their gardens. Produce grown in the gardens are washed, bagged, and available for sale in the community with the funds directly supporting school programs.

We also like to donate our time during busy harvest and sowing seasons by collecting and washing produce, weeding the garden beds, and tilling the soil in preparation for the next batch of crops.

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Photo courtesy of Growe Foundation
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Photo courtesy of Growe Foundation

Growe Foundation is always looking for more people to join the team and give school gardens some extra love and care. If you’d like to volunteer, please click here for more information.

Interested in starting a Garden to Table Program at your school? Click for more information >>

About Natalie Fauble

Natalie Fauble is the Online Marketing Manager - Content & SEO for Tundra Restaurant Supply. As a digital marketer with a passion for the restaurant industry, Natalie helps companies shape their brand through thoughtful, fun and innovative content strategies. When she isn't blogging for Tundra Restaurant Supply you can find her in her vegetable garden or in the kitchen whipping up one of her favorite dishes.

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