Sprout City Farms (SCF), an urban agriculture nonprofit organization in Denver, Colorado, manages a one-acre organic vegetable and herb farm on the grounds of the Denver Green School (DGS) in SE Denver. DGS is an Early Childhood Education through 8th grade public innovation school within Denver Public Schools, now in its second year. The curriculum at DGS is focused on sustainability and “hands-on, brains-on” service learning. The Denver Green School Community Farm is the first large-scale farm on public school grounds in Denver.
During the summer months, the farm supplies fresh, weekly produce shares to over 40 families from the school and neighborhood who participate in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, including 4 sponsored shares which were gifted to local refugee families. In the fall, Sprout City Farms sets up a weekly farm stand for members of the school and neighborhood community to purchase freshly-picked veggies. During the school year, the farm supplies the DGS cafeteria with fresh vegetables and herbs for the salad bar and for use in cooked meals. This revolutionary Farm-to-Cafeteria program is the first of its kind in the state of Colorado where produce is grown on a large scale (over 100 pounds of produce supplied to the cafeteria weekly) on school grounds and delivered directly to the school’s kitchen.
Sprout City Farms also provides food- and farm-based educational programs to the school and community, and offers volunteer work days each weekend.
SCF is currently fundraising on Kickstarter.com to support the long-term sustainability of the DGS Community Farm and its staff and programs. Kickstarter is a unique fundraising platform where “backers” pledge donations to a project, but the project only receives the donations if it reaches its monetary goal by the deadline set. If the full amount is not raised by the deadline, no one’s credit card is charged and the project does not receive any of the funds that had been pledged. There is a nifty video to watch as well as a description of the project and a full list of items the fundraiser will support on the Denver Green School Community Farm’s kickstarter page.
SCF must raise $15,000 by Friday, September 30th! Currently, with 11 days to go, the project is 70% funded–please help SCF reach its goal by pledging any amount (minimum pledge is $1–every dollar counts!), and spreading the word within your networks!
For more info please visit: www.sproutcityfarms.org, www.facebook.com/sproutcityfarms, http://kck.st/o3DUrH
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