Mountain Roots Food Project

Board Meeting Dec 19, 2013

PROGRAM REPORTS

Access and Outreach, Lauren Contorno

Adult Education Workshops

  • I have a call on 12/20 with Cooking Matters staff to discuss the possibility of bringing the program to Gunnison. In January I will be applying for a “mini-grant” to host Cooking Matters at the Store grocery store tours.

Grant writing/fundraising

  • Upcoming grant submissions: Fiskars Orange Thumb (Dec 31; $5,000)
  • Sill waiting to hear from Subaru Healthy Sprouts ($500)
  • Recent grants received: CB Rotary ($500), Town of Crested Butte ($3,000), Jared Polis Foundation ($2,500)
  • We did NOT receive the $25,000 grant from the Clif Bar Foundation.
  • Our fundraising video is complete. It will be placed on Kickstarter and Indiegogo in January. Funds raised will go towards Rec Center garden expansion.
  • I am still posting bi-weekly fundraising requests on Facebook. Please share!

Kids Cook! Afterschool cooking class

  • Cassandra Sisco will be teaching both classes. Classes start the first week of January. Only 2 kids are signed up for the Gunnison class and 0 in Crested Butte. If you know any middle schoolers who might be interested, spread the word!

Farm to School, Kirsten Frazee

Events:

-We had a booth at the Gunnison Sugar Plum Festival for the first time this year, Sat. Nov. 16th (in the non-profits room).

-We had a booth at the CB Christmas Bazaar with several items to sell and a kids’ craft.

-Holly and I gave a presentation to the School Board at their Dec. 2nd meeting (It was an overview of the Farm to School program).

  1. Local Foods

The school would like our support / welcomes our efforts in these three areas:

  1. Community communication and positive PR for food quality improvements they have made in the last two years and will make this year. We have been compiling a list of improvements and will type them up on an insert in the school lunch menu in January or February.
  2. Research and support to make improvements to the a la carte menu. Quality upgrades are needed to meet new state policies.
  3. Research and support to change over more items on the menu to local sources. We are working to identify 3-5 top volume items that can be sourced locally.
  4. Supporting them in their process as they go through local beef bids.
  1. Education

I am developing hands-on science lessons with some assistance from a volunteer. More news to come in January.

  1. Youth Gardens

-In Gunnison: We developed a garden design plan with input from middle school students. The garden design drawing and other supportive materials will be submitted as part of the school’s large Go-Co grant application this January.