Welcome to the seventh issue of The Root of the Matter. We would like to wish all of our supporters a very happy and healthy holiday season, full of good times, good cheer, and GOOD FOOD!

You have probably heard that many nonprofit organizations are presently experiencing a significant drop in charitable giving--consequently, you will likely receive numerous year-end appeals this season. Hopefully you have already received and reviewed our appeal, but if you haven’t, please consider reading it here. Please know that your donation is vital to our survival. Click here to read more about how we came up with our year-end appeal concept, and to learn how to make a donation.

It is important to us to familiarize our supporters with the amazing community of East Palo Alto that we feel so fortunate to serve. This new column will feature various aspects of life in East Palo Alto, including interviews with local leaders and youth. Click here to read this month’s column, including information about EPA history, local politics, and current events.

We hope that over time this column will help to sketch out a picture of our community that will enhance your understanding of our work, and lead you to join our mission of food system change, health and environmental education in this amazing city.

Kindergarten-5th Grade Garden Lessons

December marks the end of garden lessons for 2nd, 3rd and 5th grades. We have learned and played together over the past three months, and students had a blast celebrating their time in garden lessons with our bike blender. We are looking forward to garden lessons with kindergarten, 1st and 4th grades starting in January.

EPACS Middle School Elective is still going strong! At the end of October, EPACS 8th graders finished the trimester with a field trip to Hidden Villa to learn more about food systems, food justice, and organic gardening.

Currently, EPACS 7th graders are learning about organic gardening, nutrition, and cooking. Once a week, the 7th graders have the opportunity to meet with staff from the Institute for the Future to talk about nutrition and food choices, and to learn about digital story telling.

Last week, high school students from College Track finished their semester of gardening at the Collective Roots Garden. They look forward to beginning a unit on cooking and nutrition after the holidays.

Middle School students from the 49ers Academy have been busy beautifying their school during the new Collective Roots after-school program. Once a week, they plant and care for EarthBoxes, while they anticipate starting work on their new school garden.

Since its’ founding just six months ago, the EPA Community Farmers Market has supplied fresh fruits and vegetables to local residents over the past thirty consecutive Sunday afternoons. Community members have made over 7,000 visits to purchase seasonally available local produce, and through a special program, nearly $10,000 in food has been donated to community organizations.

Everyone is invited to our end-of-season market celebration on Sunday, December 21st, from 2-5 PM at the market site: St. Francis of Assisi Church (1425 Bay Road, just 2 blocks from University Drive). Come enjoy hot beverages, local performance artists, healthy snacks, raffle drawings, and warm company. Everybody is welcome! More information about the end of season celebration event is available here. To read about market relocation plans, click here.

NOTE: This newsletter employs hyperlinks that act as shortcuts to related documents or web pages. Click on the green underlined words in the articles above to find out more information.

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To read past newsletters, go to http://collectiveroots.org/news/newsletters.