We Are Seeking Volunteers!

We are looking for individuals who enjoy working with children and youth and who are interested in local food, nutrition, food education, cooking, or gardening. Contact food access coordinator Megan Townley to get involved. Click here for volunteer duties and qualifications!

Announcing Harvest of the Month!

Project GROWS and the Staunton City School Nutrition Program have teamed up to bring the first-ever “Harvest of the Month” vegetable tastings to Staunton schools this spring!

Harvest of the Month is an educational initiative that seeks to familiarize local youth with vegetables and encourage healthy food choices through hands-on experiences. Throughout March, April, and May, Project GROWS staff and volunteers will bring fresh local vegetable samples into all six Staunton City School cafeterias once a month, with an estimated reach of 2,750 students. Produce for the Harvest of the Month will be locally sourced from the Project GROWS farm and other farms in the area.

“Harvest of the Month is a fun way to connect cafeteria to classroom, to expand familiarity with and showcase our local abundance, and to have students try new foods. We hope the long term benefit would be to increase our students' preferences for fruits and vegetables in school and at home, thus building healthier schools and community.”

- Amanda Warren, Director of School Nutrition at Staunton City Schools

This Month's Recipe

Let's Eat! Cooking Classes

Our "Let’s Eat!” classes have been a blast! Hosted at Dixon Educational Center by Project GROWS, “Let’s Eat!” is a family-centered cooking program series designed to provide parents with tools to make meal time healthy, simple, enjoyable, and homemade. At each cooking class, families with students at Dixon have a chance to build confidence in learning how to cook easy, healthy meals while exploring ways to include the whole family in dinner preparation!

At one of our recent Let's Eat classes, families made smoothies with fruits and vegetables, including spinach. One of our five-year-olds in attendance, Abby, had never tried spinach before. After some encouragement, Abby—an avid "veggie protestor"—took a small bite of a spinach leaf and immediately her face lit up! Later that evening when given a choice for a topping on her homemade flatbread pizza, Abby took a handful of spinach, put it on her pizza, and ate the whole thing! Abby's parent says,

"Abby won't let me forget this class—she loves coming here!"