Yesterday I had the privilege to participate in the Colorado Proud School Meal Day with Denver Public Schools (DPS). While the festivities celebrated the use of Colorado agriculture products in the DPS school meals, there were many other reasons to be excited for DPS. Specifically, McGlone Elementary School, where the celebration took place, displayed their new playground and garden facilities.

The newly renovated grounds include a playground, teaching greenhouse with room and materials for classes to come work, a garden to provide produce for the salad bar and an urban farm (over an acre) with seven plots complete with a drip water system. All of this is to help DPS teach their students about the local agriculture. However, there are other positive byproducts to the effort, including fresh free produce for the salad bars, beautiful landscape with less vandalization, productive use of space and more efficient use of water.

To add to the celebration, students harvested three types of cucumbers, green peppers, tomatoes, lettuce and spinach. The cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes were cut by students and added to whole grain noodles and mixed with a sauce prepared by a local chef for all of our enjoyment. I have to admit that I am a lover of crisp garden cucumbers and I nearly inhaled the sample we were given.

The scrumptious meal of spaghetti, whole grain bread (made in the DPS kitchen) and Colorado produce were enjoyed while I spoke with several fourth grade students. Some students were encouraged to try the Colorado produce at the salad bar by the centerpiece baskets of produce and the Colorado maps displaying where the produce was from. They were so interested in learning where the various fruits and vegetables were from that they soon began to quiz each other. “Where are the peaches from? What about the eggs? How about the tomatoes?”

Colorado Proud School Meal Day brought nutritious food and education of Colorado agriculture to all of the students at McGlone Elementary. I look forward to seeing this movement grow and include more districts across Colorado.

Harvest is starting at Bridges of Silence. The students’ hard work is paying off beginning with cucumbers. It’s amazing to think that through the past week and  a half of monsoon weather complete with sheets of rain, pounding thunder, lightning sparkles and even damaging hail, the Bridges of Silence garden is healthy and productive. Soon, they will have enough produce to begin their farmer’s market. Until then, they share their treasures with those around them.

I have been impressed with the use of the Bridges’ backyard, which is entirely for the garden. This brings new meaning to the term “backyard garden” and inspires me to make changes in my yard next year. How much time, water and money do I spend on useless green grass in the yard? Even keeping half the grass and planting produce on the other half, I could provide organic fruits and vegetables for my family and others for most of the summer. The garden at Bridges is beautiful and peaceful leaving no one yearning for grass.