The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Last year, two grassroots groups—Paradise Food Project and Mountain Roots Community Gardens Project—began working to grow food and teach people about growing and eating organic food in Gunnison and Crested Butte.
The first growing seasons were very successful—both ends of the valley had a huge amount of enthusiasm and support from community volunteers, businesses, and local government. From a small-scale production garden in Crested Butte, more than 600 pounds of food was grown and donated to local food banks, schools, and offered as work-trade for volunteers.
A Farm to School effort was launched, bringing more fresh, local and organic foods into school meals than ever before.
In Gunnison, project volunteers built a new community garden and networked, promoted and supported the existing gardens. The Summer Garden Camps “Botany Basics” and “Naturalists in the Garden” gave young people fun, hands-on experience in the gardens.
Community seasonal meals, films, and festivals in both ends of the valley brought people together to celebrate good, fresh, organic, local food.
Many of them played a part in the groups’ successful first year.
Now, the two groups have merged to create one valley-wide organization dedicated to cultivating food, people, and community in the Gunnison Valley.
Here’s an overview of the programs:
Farm to School works to build connections between regional farms, distributors and RE1J schools to bring as much fresh, local, and organic ingredients into all school food. The project offers resources to help teach kids what good, nutritious food tastes like, where it comes from, why it is good for them, and how it is grown.
Urban Agriculture converts unused urban spaces (empty lots, parking lots, unused public land) into food production sites and donates the majority of food produced. This increases equal access to real food for all economic groups and builds our community food security.
Community Gardens provide access to personal garden space for people who don’t have their own land. Plots are rented on a seasonal basis and work-trade agreements are available for those who need financial assistance. A demonstration garden in Gunnison is home to adult gardening education programs.
The Mountain Roots Food Project has installed a garden at the Crested Butte Community School to be a “Living Classroom” to provide a setting for K-6 students to have hands-on experiential lessons. Grades 7-12 can take a leadership role in the student-run garden, experiencing the relationships between food, land, and the environment, learning life skills, and taking steps toward self-sufficiency.
In the Youth Horticulture program, the Mountain Roots Food Project built a youth and family garden at the Community Center this spring. This year, the Youth Garden is home to the summer Garden Camp programs. Garden educators collaborate with pre-k through grade 12 classroom teachers to implement curriculum that supports all aspects of gardening including agriculture practices, botany, environmental education, and healthy lifestyle choices.
Roots & Shoots Garden Summer Camps offer kids ages 5-12 in both Crested Butte and Gunnison a hands-on, minds-on environment to experience organic growing, life cycles of plants, food systems, pollinators, habitats, tasty garden snacks, cooperative games, natural art projects, and more.
Volunteers are always welcome to share what they know or learn as they go. Visit www.mountainrootsfoodproject.org for more information.
