We received this note from Red Rock High School Garden Club sponsor Elaine Watkins:

Yesterday, we had our first harvest from our new garden. We pulled five pounds of greens and cleaned and bagged them.  We're donating them to our elementary school's Backpacks for Kids families.  Ten children each take home a backpack of nutritious foods each Friday.  This week they'll also have fresh green salad.

"Backpacks for Kids" is a program that the Verde Food Council started first at Beaver Street School in Rimrock, and now at West Sedona School. In cooperation with the food-bank and the school, needy children take home a backpack of food for the weekend. A reality of hunger is that for many children, school is an essential source for nutrition.

One of our objectives as we start more school gardens will be to increase awareness and resources for healthy food at each of our schools.

Desert Star Community School:

Students at Desert Star Community School in Cornville with the guidance of artist Caitlin Flynn have created notecards celebrating our planet and environment. The Verde Food Council is making sets of them available for purchase. Proceeds from sales will benefit more school art projects that aim to teach about being good stewards of our earth.

http://www.gardensforhumanity.org/