Give us your food scraps, we'll give you veggies!

In our effort to establish monthly "farm stand sales," we sometimes find ourselves in low-harvest cycles.  This month, to solve that issue, Jonathan Galindez went harvesting in the neighborhood, so that we ended up with locally grown mandarins, oranges, and cilantro from our gardens to share with the neighbors, who collect food scraps for our compost piles.  The cycle continues - we get neighbors' nutrient rich food scraps, all those nutrients go back in the soil, the food we grow sucks up all those nutrients, and they go back into the bellies of our neighbors!

Graduation, farm stand, families, community

So we gathered today to celebrate the graduates of our most recent 13-week horticultural & entrepreneurial training.  It was fantastic and fun - the food, the photo booth, the students' presentations on their work.  What was MOST amazing about the day though?  Simply, the PEOPLE.  RootDown, in the past 7 years has built a community, a family of sorts - folks who have increased their commitment to building healthier food communities in South Los Angeles.  Today we had past students, current students, present and former employees, parents, peers, and next generation babies whose parents now value growing, cooking, and eating fresh food.  Thanks to everyone who made this latest training, and this graduation day possible and memorable.