Message from genHkids president

Occasionally someone special walks, completely unexpectedly, into your life and changes the direction you thought you were headed.  These occurrences can be good or bad, but rarely are they without importance.  My years as genHkids' President has taught me many things, and among the most important of those lessons has been to pay close attention to the people who enter our organization – and my life – unannounced.

Roxanne is certainly one such someone.  She is as clever and perceptive a student as I’ve ever encountered, and I’m so pleased by her hunger to learn and willingness to intern at genHkids.  Rox may have arrived quite unexpectedly, but she quickly found her place at the heart of one of our most hopeful ventures. 

The purpose of this blog is to allow Rox to narrate the creation of genHkids first ever community garden, a project I fondly dubbed Seeds of Possibility.  I’ve given this great responsibility to Roxanne because I trust both her keen eyes and her kind heart to witness, participate in and document this undertaking with wisdom, insight and humor. 

Community Gardens are great connectors.  They help connect participants to the source of their food, neighbors to one another, parents to children and children to our earth. They can be a source of food, activity, beauty, mental health, income and respite.  Research on Urban Agriculture projects in socially and economically depressed areas of major cities cite improvements in most major indicators of mental and physical health, as well as significant decreases in crime.

Additional research shows that children who participate in the production of their food, whether in gardens or the kitchen, are much more likely to try, and to like, those food options; vegetable gardens are an excellent opportunity to expand young palates and instill healthy eating habits.  “Seed to Fork” is a concept we hope to begin instilling in our children and community.

I’ve always loved the reassurance implicit in the thought that “we don’t know how the story ends.”  I am truly looking forward to experiencing this project through Roxanne’s eyes – and through the eyes of anyone she may include in the blog pages to come (I’m rooting for at least one entry told from the vantage-point of her book-eating, canine companion).  I hope you’ll visit this site often for updates, and that you will come to share our excitement for the Seeds of Possibility being sown in our community!

Kemia Sarraf, M.D., M.P.H.
President&Founder, genHkids.org
www.genHkids.org
Kemia@genHkids.org