Written by Cordelia Feess-Armstrong
FLY Intern personal projects are a unique opportunity where the youth are able to take control of their education and take a deeper exploration into the food system.
Leilani: Created a guide for native edible plants here in Colorado. The book included hand drawn pictures with information about what you should look for when gathering the plant.
Emilio: Used origami to represent the different type of pollinators and how they are important to the food system.
Calah: Painted a picture representing farmworkers and the harsh history that they have had to endure to receive any rights in the United States.
Tyler: Created a card game in which the players would be faced with challenges while trying to produce a successful harvest. The goal is to keep the invasive species out of the garden so that the fruits and vegetables can grow.
Timothy: Researched the best practice for saving seed from fruits and vegetables. He created a demonstration on how easy it is to save the seeds from plants like lettuce.
Dylan: Researched beneficial bugs to see in a garden and the role that they play in making a garden thrive.
Samantha: Worked on research on alternative gardening such as vertical gardening and aquaponics. Living in a space that doesn’t have a lot of room to grow doesn’t mean that people can’t grow with the space that they have.
Aurora: Looked into creating the perfect breed of rice to grow with less water. The modifications made to the rice would allow for it to grow at higher altitudes with less water.
Brody and Dylan: Proposed to Food to Power staff why the investment of bees hives would be beneficial to the organization. The researched the cost as well as potential benefits to adding hives into future plans for the site.
Elena: Conducted initial research into natural paints, and assembled and presented a collage to represent the complexity of the food system.
