Food Revolution Day and the Growe Foundation

Kids, gardens and food are close to Christine’s heart. She was an early supporter of Boulder’s fantastic Growe Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes health, nutrition and education in elementary schools through the magic of gardens. Among other things, for a number of years Christine was the Growe Foundation’s roving chef, teaching cooking classes across Boulder County that incorporated produce the kids had grown themselves.

The classes weren’t just about radishes and tacos. When she taught kids how to make Indonesian lettuce wraps, for example, the kids learned about Indonesia, as well as Asian fish sauce and Thai basil.

The approach works. Get the kids in the gardens, where it begins with soil and seeds. Teach them how to nurture the plants. By the time they snip that head of lettuce or pluck the pea pod, their relationship to food has already been transformed. Cooking, which is a vital (and sadly, fading) skill, resonates much more with the kids when they watched that basil plant sprout from miniature seed to aromatic bouquet. When all of this is tied back to curriculum, like how Indonesia is an archipelago of thousands of islands, is the fourth most-populous country in the world, and has been a vital link in international trade since the 7th century, it becomes more personal.

Christine cherished this work, and now, as the Boulder County Ambassador for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Day— which is today — Fresh Thymes is thrilled to donate 5 percent of the restaurant’s proceeds to the Growe Foundation.

We are eager to help the great Jamie Oliver spread his gospel celebrating food education and family cooking, and to join him in the fight against obesity. Throughout the year, we intend to help spread Jamie’s message throughout Boulder County in different ways.

For starters, kids in schools across Boulder County grow vegetables in hoop houses sponsored by the Growe Foundation, and we are buying all of the lettuce — so far, that is 80 pounds of it — from four of the schools and serving it in different Fresh Thymes dishes, including a Growe Foundation salad, dressed with a recipe that the school kids created. All of the money we spend on the lettuce goes straight back to the garden-to-table programs in the schools.

Happy Food Revolution Day, comrades! Gardeners and cooks of the world unite!