Over the last two weeks, we've had so many exciting moments in the Good Food Gardens that the press picked up on it! First, we headed west to Altadena, California to build our first Good Food Garden with a Head Start school at the Arroyo Head Start. About sixty eager four-year-olds crowded into their new garden to plant along with Share Our Strength's founder Billy Shore and Jennie McCarthy, spokesperson for Weight Watchers who sponsored the garden. Access Hollywood came to see what the excitement was all about, and got some precious airtime with Jennie and the kids. I’ll be sure to let you know when that airs.

Here to tell us more about that experience is the Rise & Shine Mentor, Lottie Gatewood. Don't miss the link to the episode online, where you can see some of our Good Food Garden Ambassadors in action.

-Sarah

 Dear Ms. Sarah,

Our Rise & Shine Program has sure taken off. We hope you were able to watch NBC’s Nightly News last Thursday. We were featured in the Making a Difference segment. If you didn’t see us, here’s a link to our story and to the Web story on NBC’s Web site:

 We are now reaching 100 families at our distributions. We elected our officers and now each one of has a specific job. We manage everything from the budget, financials, purchasing, marketing, customer relations and of course, the garden!

It was exciting to have a national news team here interviewing us. It made all of us extremely proud of what we have been able to accomplish and what we are doing to help members of our community. Our goal is to be a model for communities around the country to replicate. We have the exposure NBC gave us will help move us in that direction.

We want to thank you and Share Our Strength again for supporting us and for allowing us to have the magnificent garden. We will all begin working with a professional horticulturalist in September so that we become even more familiar with gardening.

That’s all for now from your Rise & Shine Friends!