My name is Miguel Martinez. I’ve lived in Whittier my whole life. Born and bred on the same block. I went to Manual High School, where my parents got involved with the nutrition program there, and Sara, who ran it. She took my parents and me out to dinner, and taught us all about how to make little changes to our diets to be healthier. I didn’t realize there was much diversity in food, so many choices. My grandparents, cousins, uncles, and aunts, they all started eating better too.
So a few years ago, Sara let me know that the organization she worked for, Denver Urban Gardens, was hiring a Farm Stand Intern, and thought I might be interested. The job was at their office, right in my neighborhood, and it meant I would help get more healthy food to my neighbors. I worked that summer with Shawnee, who taught me everything I needed to know about setting up a farm stand: processing payments and SNAP benefits, doing inventory, dealing with customers, that sort of thing.
The internship opened up a lot of doors for me, that’s for sure. It introduced me to the food scene in Denver. I got asked to go to a university classroom–before I even graduated from high school–to tell them about what I learned about food access and healthy food. When the Union Station Farmers Market was looking for someone to run the market last year, DUG sent me the job description and introduced me to them. I got the job.
I’m going to school now at Johnson & Wales, and am going to focus on Culinary Nutrition. I also work at a farm-to-table restaurant. I want to be a chef, a business owner. There’s so much great stuff happening in this city, and Denver’s the new place to be. I want to be able to show kids how all these things connect: food and health and art and music.
I love my neighborhood, and want to be part of making it healthier. DUG showed me how I can do that.
