I recently had the pleasure of celebrating the school garden at Jefferson Elementary with phenomenal fourth and fifth graders who have used their green thumbs to grow fruits and vegetables.

In my previous blog, I mentioned that I love California the best of all places I’ve lived. Well, that was until the rain started to pour on all of us during my symbolic presentation.   All of the kids started jumping, running, laughing and screaming; believe it or not, it was such a great sight to see! I was so honored to present a check in the amount of $5,000 to the school as our first-year donation which will cover new garden beds and other garden necessities. We are so pleased to help our community at a level where it all begins – with the children!!

I had such a great time mingling with the students and discussing how their garden grew.  Each participating student was awarded a Green Jaguar Gardening Certificate and young strawberry plants for their contribution in the school’s six week organic gardening and homegrown mini-course.  Of course, as I would do, I challenged the kids to tell just a few friends about the importance of incorporating fresh fruits and vegetables into their daily eating regime, and to ask those friends to tell a few more and when that starts to occur we will have the ability to influence behaviors and truly make a difference in keeping our children healthy!  Mom’s, you are the key influencers, take on that challenge!

Oh, and I take that back, I still love California!! Come on, we need rain to keep our gardens growing!!