Teaching in Houston, Tx

I was invited to speak at Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson's Youth Summit about hunger in America and what teenagers can do about it. I told them I was going to teach them how to change the world, one seed at a time, by growing their own food and eating their veggies.

It was an amazing experience. For those of you who think there are no good people left in the world, it will do your heart good to know that these teenagers want to make their communities better for everyone.

We started the session with a little community service. I asked the teenagers to pack up seeds for our gardeners. This showed them that in less than 5 minutes, a group of 17 people can pack up enough cauliflower seeds to help over 180 families have cauliflower plants that will produce all season long. If the family lets one cauliflower plant go to seed every year and then saves and plants the seeds, they can have cauliflower for the rest of their lives.

Next we cut open some fruit and veggies and harvested seeds while snacking on the fresh produce. They learned where seeds come from and how easy it is to harvest and save seeds.

Finally, we made newspaper seed pots and planted some of the seeds we harvested. Growing is easy when you know what to do and it doesn't cost a lot of money.

In a few weeks, the teens will use the seeds they harvested in the class, along with other Dinner Garden seeds to start a big community garden.

While we were working, we talked about the difference between not having anything you WANT to eat and having absolutely NOTHING to eat.

We talked about how food comes from the ground.

We talked about helping people help themselves.

I have no doubt we will see wonderful things from these teens as they grow up. They are a group who will make their communities better by empowering people to pull themselves up.