Tewa Women United Supports Local Families to Grow Fresh Food
This Spring, Tewa Women United distributed raised bed gardening boxes (“Grow Y’Own” boxes) to six families from around the Española Valley, including Hernandez, Velarde, Chimayo, and Nambé and Tesuque Pueblos. Three of the families are headed by single mothers, and three families are grandparents who are raising their grandchildren. Some of the families are connected to Barrio Unidos in Chimayo, with whom we are doing another partnership project, Towa Bi Woh/Barrio Remedios.
Each family chose what they wanted to plant from a variety of different vegetables, including eggplants, green beans, kale, chard, spinach, and tomatoes. We plan to have one or two cooking and/or food preservation workshops for the families in the coming year so they can make the most out of their home-grown produce.
One of the participants, Krystle from Nambé Pueblo, shared this about her family’s experience with the box:
We planted so much! Radish, red lettuce, spinach, dill, cherry tomatoes, carrots, basil, and more. We are picking them every day. It helps my smallest daughter a lot. She is a very picky eater and mostly eats veggies and fruit. So now we can go outside and she can pick what she wants. It also helps us spend less at the grocery store on veggies. When I make meals I can just go out and pick what I need. The kids have helped a lot too. It gets us outside to spend time in the garden and learn more about what’s growing. I can’t believe how fast it grows in just a few days. I love it so much!
We were grateful to collaborate on this project with Ken Kuhne and Walt Cameron of Grow Y’Own, who share the same values we do around food sustainability and sovereignty: “everyone should have a garden where they can sustainably grow clean, healthy food all year round—no matter where they live.”
We also installed five Grow Y’Own boxes at the TWU office. The A’gin Summer Youth Program participants helped to transplant plants and are helping to irrigate every week.
