Our new RootDown LA Youth Coordinator, Roxana Reyes, interns, Cesar Guerra and Alejandro Pais and Manual Arts students, Yesica Perez and Jessica Solano held their first healthy food focused activity recently – a WATERMELON lemonade! sale to raise funds to send students to the Bioneers Conference in October.
Manual Arts High School Senior, Cesar Guerra reports… Well it was pretty fun to have the lemonade sale on Friday. We really got to use our “cooking” skills and people talking skills. We were making a natural lemonade [instead of the powder and artificially flavored kind] that was not only healthy for you but it was very good. We made it out of lemons, chunks of watermelon which was very sweet, mint, and instead of sugar we used agave sweetener.* Everybody had a job to do so Alejandro was cutting the watermelon while two other girls cut the lemons. As for me I was stirring and mixing the ingredients. We had a great time making jokes and laughing and the scary part for me was talking to the teachers but when I saw Alejandro doing it then I got courage, opened my mouth and thank god words came out. The lemonade was $1 dollar but some people were generous and gave us like $5 or $20 dollar bills we made about $50 bucks that day. But yeah I liked the experience and I would like to do it again.
* For those of you who don’t know Agave sweetener, our new Youth Coordinator, Roxana Reyes explains it’s from the Agave plant and it reminds her of a treat she used to have with her father, “When they cut Agave down, they cut it up and cook it in a fire. It’s called Penka. My dad used to take me to a little mercado in Boyle Heights to buy it. And we’d just chew on it…” Roxana confirmed, the lemonade sale was a icy refreshing treat for the hard working teachers at Manual Arts!
I came across Cesar while dining at my favorite fast food eatery…Carls JR. While i feasted on what i thought was the best burger ever, he approached and asked “Do you REALLY know what your eating?”, thinking he was just some hippie I gladly responded- “Yes, its a Delicious and nutritious superstar, it might not be tofu but it sure does hit the spot”. He went on explaining meat plants and meat packaging. I went to the site meatrix.com and was overwhelmed by what i had put in my stomach that afternoon. Thanks Cesar (if you ever read this) i’m on my way to eating better, more fresh non steroid products.
Great job guys…
-Sal
Wow Sal! We never mean to ruin a meal, though Cesar is spot on – it’s good to THINK about where our food is coming from before throwing it down the hatch. Yes, if meat has hormones and antibiotics from factory farming – that’s going straight into our bloodstreams and cells.
If we did ruin your meal, we owe you a burger! Come and cook with us and we’ll make the best burger EVER!
Megan – Renegade Nutrition Educator, RootDown LA