Happy Earth Day from Urban Roots! In honor of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, we have been especially thinking about how Urban Roots uses food and farming to cultivate unique connections to food, community, health, and most importantly, to the earth. Food and land bring people together in powerful ways! There’s something magical about these intimate experiences with the earth at Urban Roots, where young people can grow meaningful relationships based around where food comes from by getting their hands dirty.
To give a little history, “On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans — 10% of the U.S. population at the time — took to the streets, college campuses and hundreds of cities to protest environmental ignorance and demand a new way forward for our planet,” (www.earthday.org). “The first Earth Day is credited with launching the modern environmental movement, and is now recognized as the planet’s largest civic event.” Thanks to their efforts, today we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and keep the importance of preserving and honoring our incredible planet at the forefront of everything we do!
We are so grateful for this amazing planet and how it allows us to fulfill our two-part mission: to use food and farming to transform the lives of young people, AND to nourish the Austin community by donating fresh produce to hunger relief agencies and to our neighbors in need. Since the COVID-19 Crisis put an immediate stop to our youth programming on the farm, we are now focused on growing food to deliver to our hunger relief partners and those who are food insecure. Our small but mighty staff have taken over farm production so we can contribute to the community during this time of crisis. We will continue to feed others as long as we have the support of the community.
COVID-19 has uprooted our organization. We need your support to continue our work during this critical time. In honor of Earth Day, please consider making a gift to Urban Roots to ensure we are able to continue nourishing our shared community.
For questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact anyone on the Urban Roots team. Follow us on social media @UrbanRootsATX on Instagram and Facebook.
