The CHIditarod XI race brought in $32,798 which will help further the grant program that goes to community projects throughout Chicago. The grants help many different programs that benefit youth and adults in need. Purple Asparagus has been impacting students all over the city. In the 2015/2016 school year, they have worked with more than 1,000 Chicago elementary school students, with their Delicious Nutritious Adventures programming.
Since the beginning of the school the students have learned all about apples, pumpkins and squash, cranberries, citrus fruits, chocolate, legumes, and root vegetables. And they’re not done yet! Their herbs lesson plan is the program for May and they finish off the school year learning all about berries in June.
Purple Asparagus says
“The end of the year is a really rewarding time for our staff and volunteers. We’ve gained the trust of our students over the course of the school year and our little friends are now bona fide food explorers having tired almost 30 new foods and executed over 15 recipes on their own. Seven months ago a single word – often “yuck!” or “yummy!” – was all we would hear in description of a tasting experience. Fast forward seven months and now it’s not uncommon to hear two or even three sentences, taste and texture vocabulary words included, to describe a single taste of a new food – music to our ears!”
Students and parents are both impacted by this program and they have received great feedback Parents are proud to see their children not only learn about how food grown, but that they are experiencing new foods.
“Pumpkin, squash and cranberries were all foods that he thought he didn’t like. Trying them in different ways has made him more open-minded to trying new things.” -Purple Asparagus Parent
Children may be hard to please, or think they don’t like things that they have not tried before, but after trying a Squash and Banana smoothing, one participant in Delicious Nutritious Adventures said “I’m going to make this every day!”
The program has impacts on their classroom experience. They are learning about nature, science and new social interaction skills. Teachers have found that students don’t just enjoy the program, they are getting so much more out of it
“Our students look forward each month to their visit and retain and use the new vocabulary and knowledge taught throughout their engaging lessons.”
Purple Asparagus also wanted to share one of their programs popular recipes as a Thank You, to all of CHIditarod’s donators
