On a beautiful Thursday in September, a group of Little Elementary 6th grade students gather in the Little Sprouts School and Community Garden to harvest vegetables for a Youth Farmers Market. The sound of laughter fills the air as the kids get their hands busy picking, washing, sorting, and occasionally snacking on the abundance of locally grown organic produce. Like energetic bumblebees in brightly colored aprons, the kids zoom around the garden helping to put up the tent, set up baskets, arrange price lists, and debate the fair market value of heirloom tomatoes.
Our Youth Farmers Market coordinator, Saundra Gabriel, offers input and occasionally wrangles the kids’ attention away from the giant worm they found while digging up watermelon radishes. She has been instrumental in teaching the kids how to run a market, count correct change, identify and clean the dozens of veggies grown at the garden, advertise and vocalize their project; all the while giving them the confidence needed to talk to and interact with our community. Countless volunteers, like Saundra, help our Little Sprouts Garden Club students blossom, thanks to the support and guidance from Denver Urban Gardens.
DUG cultivates and nurtures over 150 community gardens, thousands of gardeners. and implements dozens of programs, including the Youth Farmers Markets – they are the foundation we set our Farmer’s Market tent upon. We are thankful for the programs, courses, shared knowledge, and resources that DUG supplies us and we could not accomplish our goals without their mentorship. It is DUG’s commitment to growing community that inspires us to volunteer, share our knowledge with others, and to GROW.
That is one of the many reasons #WeDigDUG.