Thursday, December 2, 2010

Interning at Feed Denver by Sydney and Jacob

Harvesting crops, spray painting signs, gathering compost, and learning more about how important purely organic foods are to the community are things that we do on a weekly basis. As two seniors in high school we, (Sydney Hunter and Jacob Donaldson) have been very privileged to volunteer at Feed Denver: Urban Farms & Markets. Starting out as a service learning project, for a class of ours, we did not know how much we would really learn through our service.

On our first day we drove to the old Stapleton airport grounds not knowing what to expect. We were welcomed with open arms and we started learning right away. In the first day alone we learned the importance of pure soil while even preparing for a farmer’s market in an underprivileged community. We have learned through the example of people like Will Allen, founder of Growing Power, about the purely disgusting truth of most of the food we eat as Americans. This is what organizations like Feed Denver work to fix. Feed Denver is trying to fix the unhealthy and tainted food system in the world today. They use natural and organic growing techniques (for example, harvesting worm juice to use as both fertilizer and pesticide). Although a very large focus of Feed Denver is on the food, while working with Feed Denver we have learned that it is about the community as well.

Feed Denver creates job opportunities in the community. For example, Feed Denver has hired eight Bhutanese refugees to share their knowledge of farming from their culture and to incorporate it into Feed Denver’s mission. By collecting compost from local coffee shops and restaurants, Feed Denver is able to use the community’s resources to create rich soil and therefore, rich food.

As busy High School students, we have been very blessed to work with Feed Denver learning not only how to farm and harvest crops but, how to be benefactors in the community. From this experience we hope to have a greater influence on our communities for the rest of our lives.

Here's a video of us talking about our work at Feed Denver: See Video

Sydney Hunter and Jacob Donaldson

Seniors at Rock Canyon High School

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