A Seed Has Been Planted

The birth of New Roots CO has been a force of transition over the past six months. Our board members and most influential supporters have been reevaluating, re-imaging, and refocusing objectives to best empower our mission to support healthy, local, and sustainable food access through education, outreach, and partnership. It has been exciting and humbling to watch the steady growth manifest through patient, charitable work.

In the past few months, New Roots CO has transformed our live, community outreach radio show into a podcast! We’ve welcomed guests from the Eagle River Water and Sanitation District, Vail Honeywagon, and Eagle County offices and discussed a plethora of topics, such as water conservation, food policy, and conscious consumerism. It is our goal to keep Eagle County informed on issues pertaining to local food endeavors, as well as environmental stewardship, and other community-focused initiatives. We do this by balancing our discussions with local, regional, and national matters and other subjects that fit within our mission. Please consider subscribing to our podcast on Soundcloud and never miss out on this informational community series!

The New Roots CO board members met with Sustainability Coordinator, Rita Hennigan and Operations Manager, Brian Raper of the Eagle River Valley Food Bank (ERVFB), now open and operating out of Gypsum, CO. We are excited to collaborate with ERVFB to help mitigate food waste from grocery stores and restaurants across Eagle County and assist in getting that food to people. We are also working on a project to help individual gardeners get their surplus produce to the food bank. Keep an eye out on our Facebook and Instagram for updates on these collaborations! We will hopefully be ready to have gardeners sign up for produce donations this Spring 2019!

Last week, a couple New Roots CO board members had the pleasure of sitting on a sustainability panel for the Eagle River Youth Coalition’s, Youth Leadership Council. This council is comprised of youth from each Eagle County high school and each sits on a committee with a specific focus to support community development in the realms of health, sustainability, and poverty. Our board members spoke about food systems and regenerative agriculture and ways for youth leaders to get involved in sustainability initiatives in our county and beyond, starting by empowering themselves to make more sustainable personal choices in their daily lives.

Through these small, but mighty initiatives, New Roots CO is building momentum in local food sustainability, sovereignty, and resilience within the Eagle River Valley community. With a Local Food Systems Summit in the works and tentatively planned for February 2019, we hope to continue to be catalysts for collaboration and create networks of support for local food producers, suppliers and other enterprises, connecting community members and other stakeholders together towards a more sustainable and regenerative food system.

We hope you’ll join us in being active participants in fostering a resilient Eagle River Valley fueled by healthy, sustainable, local food. We are here to be a resource for our local community, advocates for environmentally responsible production of food, as well as inspire others towards more sustainable food choices in their own lives. As both founders of a new nonprofit and passionate local activists, we are dedicated to realizing the vision of cultivating a community where every individual in the Eagle River Valley has access to local, sustainable, and nourishing food resources. To get involved, make a donation, or share your ideas, please email us at info@newrootsco.org.

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