It was the beginning of the pandemic and GPS had pivoted to serve as a grocery distribution center for our partner organizations. Our friend Hallie Sykes, then Education Manager of Oxbow, supported us by bringing 25 consecutive weeks of veggies to Green Plate Special to pack out for grocery distribution.
This helped spark a partnership between the organizations, and this winter, Green Plate Special teamed up with the Oxbow OxEd team and the University of Washington to deliver a series of three virtual cooking lessons to fourth and fifth graders from Frank Waggoner Elementary who participated, hands-on, from home!
Each cooking class included packing and distributing ingredients for each youth-friendly recipe, an hour-long synchronous “cook-along” lesson facilitated by Oxbow and GPS educators, and bilingual videos and lesson materials.
These virtual cooking lessons explored the relationship between food and energy, the year-round seasonality of vegetables like kale, and the impact of food choices on health, the environment, and the economy. All lessons were adaptable to meet the needs of a variety of audiences and age groups!
To honor this partnership, OxEd and GPS celebrated the series by firing up the GPS pizza oven and sharing ideas for future collaborations. The Oxbow team also brought some garlic scapes from the Oxbow farm to put on the pizzas! We're grateful to all our friends at Oxbow who continue to believe in us and support our ventures. We look forward to working together soon.
Interested in cooking with Oxbow and Green Plate Special? Follow the links below for more details and as well recipes and videos!
On the corner of 25th Ave S and S. Walker, next to the 2100 Building