More than 100 children flocked to Aurora Public Library on Saturday morning to catch a school bus headed for Grant Family Farms — and to fling paint on it.
The bus, donated by the Cherry Creek School District, will be used as a mobile chicken coop on the 1,500-acre family-owned farm in northern Colorado.
At the peak, 70 kids were brushing, flinging and rubbing paint on the sides of the bus, covering the stenciled-on chickens.
“What began as organized chaos quickly moved to mayhem,” said Megan Ellis, outreach and programming librarian for Aurora Public Library.
The bus is the first to be donated to the farm. It will join a fleet of 11 other buses used to house and transport their free-range chickens around the farm, which also eliminates the need to weed, said Angela Simon, Grant Family Farms chef and representative of Boulder Community Supported Agriculture.
“The chickens lay their eggs right inside of the bus in the laying boxes,” Simon said.
Ramps are placed leading into the coop so the chickens can wander in and out as they please.
Simon said kids especially always have a positive and excited response to the buses. She enjoys the opportunity to help children make the connection to the food on their plates to where it comes from.
Ellis said she realized kids have a disconnect as to where their food comes from last week during a story time at the library.
“I had a kid ask me where there was milk coming out of a cow,” she said.
She said she enjoyed listening to the children ask about the farm as they prepared the coop for its new home.
Covered in paint, Allie Wenden, 8, said she loves all animals. “I think it’s a great idea so the chickens can have a habitat,” she said.
“I don’t want any animals not to have a habitat.”
Caitlin Gibbons: 303-954-1638 or cgibbons@denverpost.com
