Tomato Mountain has partnered for a third season with the Rice Child + Family Center in Evanston by providing weekly deliveries of your vacation boxes and other excess produce for use in the Center's kitchen.
The
Rice Center provides 24-hour care to children who are some of the most severely abused and neglected in the Chicago area. The youth range in age from 8-15 and receive intensive rehabilitative treatment and therapeutic

services for approximately 1-2 years. Upon leaving Rice, a child will often be placed in a suitable foster home, though sometimes will reunite with birth parents.
In June 2010, the 46 youth in residence at the Rice Center planted their first vegetable gardens. With seedling plants from Tomato Mountain and support from community volunteers, the Rice Center began the first part of their Veg Ed initiative.
Veg Ed was co-founded by Tomato Mountain CSA member Lela Beem, a therapeutic yoga instructor at Rice. The programming staff at Rice consider expressive therapies and acquiring healthy living habits to be a valuable part of a traumatized child's rehabilitation. The gardening program is the foundation to educating Rice residents about the value of healthy eating, the skills needed to grow food, and provides extra motivation to spend time outdoors. Not lost on the adults overseeing the initiative is that the nurturing the children give the garden parallels the nurturing the children receive from Rice Center staff and volunteers. The
Veg Ed program was featured in a Sun-Times
article last summer.
In addition to growing food, the Center receives weekly donations from Tomato Mountain, made up primarily of your vacation boxes, which are incorporated into the daily meals at the center. As part of Veg Ed, residents of Rice also received weekly cooking classes from community volunteers, often using Tomato Mountain ingredients in their projects.
On a day-to-day basis it is a nice break in the day for a couple of children and a counselor to go out and check on the garden or to bond working together in the kitchen. It has continued to be a rewarding experience for everyone.
Should you be unavailable to receive your CSA box any week due to vacation or emergency, just let us know as early as possible that you'd like it donated, and rest assured that it will be put to good use!