The Santa Cruz Sentinel covered our largest youth Harvest Fest to date.

The article “A field trip to chew on: teens run organic food festival“quotes this student participant:

Lorraine Medina talks fast and waves her arms when you ask her about organic vegetables.

“Chard and kale. I absolutely love them!” said the wide-eyed 17-year-old, pointing at the leafy cousins of beet and cabbage growing in a vegetable patch the size of a small swimming pool. “Kale is really, really good in stir-frys. And I never knew it existed!”

Organic food means all food, from meat to fruit and vegetables that have not been treated with chemicals, hormones, or chemical pesticides and fungicides that may cause health problems to consumers. Some organic fungicides and natural solutions are permitted to be under the organic label. The organic definition also extends to non-GMO (non genetically modified organism) however there are many in debate over whether it should be. GMO does not automatically mean there are health risks as selective breeding (e.g. collecting seeds from plants that make high-quality food and ignoring seeds from low-quality plants) is a form of natural genetic modification. Whichever way you lean, the organic food festival is a celebration of healther and more natural fruits and veggies.

In addition to 300 plus students participating newly hired Food Service Director of Santa Cruz City Schools, Jamie Smith was on hand to bake up wood fired pizzas made from “Food, What?!” youth grown veggies! See more at the “Food, What?!” Blog