The Carrot Academy

The Carrot Academy is an initiative to offer alternative classroom like experiences to youth at our LOVE Building facility. A traditional Academy event allows children to go out into the garden and work with plants, weed and harvest, compost and plant. They then take some of  their bounty into the kitchen, prepare their meal and sit down and talk about a topic related to their self sufficiency, self esteem and sustainable food systems. Then they wash up and put their dishes away.

If that seems simple-minded, then you get our concept. We focus on things like building knife skills, thorough dish washing techniques, safe food storage and seed saving. The Carrot Academy is an experience that 50 years ago would have been so common place that there would have been laughter rather than awe at this community education offering. But in this day and age where most our food experiences are detached, cheap and low investment, these events are in extremely high demand.

Trish Virgin, the coordinator of the educational programming at our facility, is a great collaborator and welcomes both teachers and students who have ideas how this format can lead to deeper understanding of one's health and our local food system. Among her talents she is a great gardener,  cook and listener. Please contact her by email or call her at 615-209-8803.

The programs offered at the LOVE Building are in partnership with Healthy, Wealthy, Wise Inc., a new stand-alone, non-profit organization that is being launched from Good Food for Good People. The bigger mission of the organization is to get good food into the hands of the most food insecure people in Nashville, including senior citizens, children and low-income families. This year we pioneered a Double SNAP program in partnership with United Healthcare that provides fresh local produce to at-risk households here in  in Nashville.