EATS’ Earth Day Pledge

Happy Earth Day! We thought we’d celebrate by making a pledge to you, our community. 

EATS pledges to connect the community to food this year. What do we mean by that? Let us explain. 

EATS strives to strengthen our community’s relationship to food at every step of the food cycle. This is most obvious in our cooking classes. EATS’ cooking education instills ownership over food and autonomy to nourish oneself. Through cooking education, students of all ages expand their palette and learn to love foods of all different kinds.

Beyond cooking classes, EATS literally connects our community to food through our supplemental meals program, Backpack Bundles, offered to children in Park City School District schools and Eastern Summit County. This program, which is possible because of our partnership with the Park City Christian Center, gives students the chance to try new snacks over the weekend in the comfort of their own homes. It aims to fill a gap for those who might otherwise feel hungry over the weekend when they’re not eating meals at school.

Our gardening education connects our community to food by offering the unique opportunity to create their own food from scratch. EATS’ gardening education also teaches about the value of buying local food over mass-produced foods and how that can impact our local economy. 

The last step in the food cycle is to dispose of whatever isn’t consumed. EATS has tackled this in the greater Park City community by starting a composting program at Parley’s Park Elementary School. We are thrilled with the results so far and we hope to use this program as a model that will span across the entire district and into the broader Wasatch Back. EATS also helps to divert styrofoam waste from landfills by supporting the Park City School District with funding to change styrofoam lunch containers to compostable containers. 

We grow food, cook food, share food, eat food, and compost what is left. That is the EATS Earth Day pledge to our community!