Growing Colorado Kids (a project of CNDC)

Description

We value teamwork, community building, nutrition, natural growing, and public service. These tenets guide our decision-making, programing, and visioning and have led to fruitful outcomes. This past season we served 22 refugee youth, harvested 2,679 pounds of fresh naturally grown produce, shared 2,365 farm fresh duck and chicken eggs, and collected 23 pounds of fresh honey! The bounty went home with our youth and to our partner nonprofit organizations, SAME Café and Brighton Shares the Harvest.

Growing Colorado Kids was founded in 2008 by Chris and Denise Lines to address the hunger faced by many refugee youth in Metro Denver. At first, the program utilized inner-city garden plots to grow food for refugee families. Hosts provided water and land and in turn received a portion of the harvest. In 2013, Growing Colorado Kids moved to a 5-acre farm in Commerce City. With the addition of farm animals and a colony of bees, refugee youth are now provided time away from the challenges of city and family life and the enjoyment of fresh air, nutritious fresh food, animals to study and know, and the opportunity to gain invaluable scholastic and life skills.