Valentines for Veggies

Organization Image

A nonprofit fundraiser supporting

Midwest Food Connection

Show our students some love by investing in food education!

$2,296

raised by 7 people

$3,000 goal

This time of year, we get a lot of loving thank-you valentines in the mail from our students. After exciting children about healthy foods, they respond with love!

  • “Thank you for coming. I loved what we all made together. I learned that trying new things is what is good.” - 3rd grader
     
  • “Thank you for coming to our class and teaching us about food! I learned about food grown in Minnesota. My favorite part was the pizza. I thought the class was fun!” - 1st grader

This winter we are teaching our “Gifts from Many Cultures” unit, which explores the many delicious foods and cuisines that have come to Minnesota with immigrant and refugee populations. Our students are tasting winter vegetables, making homemade pasta, learning about the origin of corn, and sampling global fruits! From lesson to lesson, we see children’s hands shoot into the air when we ask if they plan to cook our recipes at home. We witness the power of food education to foster healthy young people.

But we want to reach children and youth in deeper ways! In the coming year, we are embarking on two exciting initiatives that need your support:  

  • Youth Food Mentorship: We plan to partner with several middle schools to pilot a program in which we will work with youth with weekly visits to their health class to develop more knowledge of healthy habits and deeper connections than our usual series of four lessons allows.

  • Teaching the Food Shelf: We hope to reach families in a location where they have requested food education: at food shelves, where parents will be more encouraged to take certain fruits and vegetables if their children will eat them and if they know how to prepare and store them. That's where we come in, offering kid-friendly recipes, samples, and tips for preparation and storage.

Why do these initiatives matter? Because...

  • One in five school-aged children is obese. 
  • Children watch an average of 3 hours of junk food commercials a week. 
  • Children receive just 3.4 hours of food and nutrition education a year.
  • Children and adolescent’s cooking skills strongly predict their future nutritional well-being.

These are some of our big dreams! What can you pitch in to help us achieve them? This Valentine’s season, help us to show our children that we care about their health by making a donation of any amount. 


With gratitude, 

Uli, Molly, and Emily

Giving Activity

Comments

Log in to leave a comment. Log in