When Kimbal Musk and Hugo Matheson, owners of restaurants, started in 2011, the idea was to help build strong bodies and healthy minds by establishing Learning Gardens in schools located in underserved neighborhoods.
Kids would plant, nurture and harvest crops to include carrots, lettuce, radishes, peas and green beans and in the process learn valuable lessons in science, nutrition, math and problem-solving.
Today, there are 230 Learning Gardens nationwide, reaching approximately 120,000 students every school day. Forty-six of the Learning Gardens are in Colorado, with another 100 soon to be added in Memphis.
On June 25, Musk hosted a summer solstice gathering at The Kitchen Denver to celebrate the success of the Learning Gardens and to thank the educators who oversee them.
“To this day, I get goosebumps when I see the impact the Learning Gardens have,” Musk said. “Test scores go up and there is a profound change in the children; they’re so much more engaged with learning and with each other.”
At harvest time, Musk said, he has witnessed kids so excited about what they have grown that they pull the veggies out of the ground and eat them on the spot.
Jocelyn Brookstein and Melissa Tank are teachers at Coronado Hills Elementary School in the Adams 12 District and described how their students were able to harvest nine pounds of vegetables from their Learning Garden this spring. “It was our first garden-to-cafeteria experience,” Brookstein said. “Our students learned about root vegetables, the importance of companion planting and what to plant in a salsa garden.”
The students have planted another garden that will ripen by the time classes resume in late August.
The 140 guests were treated to such garden-inspired cocktails and small plates as Kaya’s Ginger Mint Fizz; roasted beets with chevre; Northern Lights smoked salmon; fava bean and English pea bruschetta and a farm salad made from snap peas and cauliflower and dressed with lemon olive oil.
The ginger mint fizz, explained Patty Cunningham, community engagement officer for The Kitchen Community, is named for a bartender at The Kitchen Denver, from whose garden the ginger mint was harvested.
Joan Haug, president of The Kitchen Community, helped Musk welcome and thank such supporters as Mike Fries, the president and CEO of Liberty Global; developer Chad McWhinney; Sage Hospitality chairman Zack Neumeyer; Walter Sharp; Jordan Grano, who designed the shade units that are used in the Learning Gardens; Dawn Donahue and Michaela Weedin, teachers at Rice Elementary School in Wellington, and Weedin’s husband, Mark.
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314, jdavidson@ denverpost.com or twitter.com/joannedavidson
