[slideshow] The Youth Leaders were tending their plots at WECAN's Food Forest yesterday when Mariela came walking in the room with her nose scrunched up. She was holding out a giant bunch of greens she'd just harvested. "What's that?!" We asked. "Eeewww, Arugula." she said, then pretended to take a big bite out of the peppery leaves.

This Thursday, as planned, those stinky greens will become our first delivery of our own locally grown produce to our after school healthy cooking class. In that class, the students will be forced at first, to try that stinky arugula just plain. Yuck! And then they will learn to apply certain cooking techniques to turn that arugula into something they will want to eat - stinky or no, that's what we do. We make those veggies taste better so people want to eat them.

Congrats to Ledette, Ali, Michel and all the Youth Leaders for launching a new supply of healthy food, to meet the demand for it, that RootDown LA is working to build in South Los Angeles!