Phoenix-based Sprouts Farmers Market has presented a $10,000 grant to Temple Terrace Farm2School. This award from the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation will launch the Tampa-area nonprofit’s new mobile kitchen, bringing plant-based health and nutrition education to local youth through cooking classes that call for farm-fresh produce.
Tampa Bay Kids’ Kitchen grows the mission of Farm2School, founded in 2013. The nonprofit uses hands-on agricultural experiences to empower children for health and success, as well as lends its expertise to schools looking to build student gardens or offer nutrition and food sustainability education. Kids’ Kitchen only furthers that.
“We’re so excited to bring plant-based nutrition and cooking lessons to students who are learning to grow fresh veggies,” said Elizabeth Leib, founder and director of Farm2School, in a statement. “We’re the only organization focused on plant-based cooking that sets up the kitchen in the physical space of school gardens so kids can make the connection between growing food and eating it.”
The public is welcome to attend the inaugural Kids’ Kitchen tasting from 10 a.m. to noon Nov. 3. Hosted on the upper campus of Turner-Bartels K-8 School, the event coincides with the school’s Green Apple Day of Service, which celebrates the opening of its new veggie garden.
Founded by the specialty grocery chain in 2015, the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation has awarded 197 grants to community organizations since its formation.
“We’re working to shift the landscape of health by focusing on programs that empower children with the access, knowledge, confidence and desire to make healthier food choices so that they can grow up to become healthier adults,” according to Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation Executive Director Lyndsey Waugh.
This article appears in Oct 11-18, 2018.
