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Watermelon Wednesday
August 2026 Issue #23
10 Year Anniversary
How a Garden Can Make a Lifelong Impact on Students -
Featuring Ian Beger of Castle Hot Springs
Watch this 4-minute video to see how a school garden helped inspire one of Arizona's regenerative farmers.
For some students, just a few hours in a school garden can spark a lifelong connection to food, soil, insects, and agriculture. That's what happened for Ian Beger, now a regenerative farmer at Castle Hot Springs, where he works to build healthy soils, grow nutritious food, and steward the land for future generations.
Through lessons on composting, pollinators, plant life cycles, desert-adapted foods, and seasonal growing, educator Lou Rodarte helped students like Ian discover that meaningful learning happens far beyond the classroom walls.
Their story is a powerful reminder that early experiences matter. When children get their hands dirty, watch seeds sprout, care for living plants, and harvest food they've grown themselves, they gain far more than gardening skills. They develop patience, responsibility, curiosity, resilience, and a deeper connection to the natural world.
Feeding the Future 2027
Save the date! Feeding the Future is BWP's signature culinary contest. Teams of students are challenged to create a school meal that is healthy, delicious, culturally-relevant and meets federal guidelines. Guests can enjoy sampling the dishes and enjoying the day at The Farm at South Mountain. Keep an eye out for tickets opening up soon!
📅 Saturday, January 23, 2027
📍6106 S 32nd St, Phoenix, AZ 85042
Interested in becoming a school mentor?
We're looking for school mentors ready to host a student team for this year's competition. If your school is interested in participating, complete the application form today and help students develop leadership skills while creating innovative school meal recipes that could make an impact across Arizona.
Show your support with gear from the Blue Watermelon Project's online store! We're excited to offer shirts, hats, water bottles, stickers, and more. Best of all, proceeds go right back into funding ingredients and tools for our students.
This past weekend, we kicked off the school year by hosting a Back-to-School Gathering in partnership with the University of Arizona Extension Service! 🌱👩🍳
This professional development event brought together local chefs, Sasha Raj and Christa Chase, along with experienced gardener, Lou Rodarte and Administrator, Kat Hughes, to share their knowledge, skills, and passion for cooking and gardening.
A heartfelt thank you to each of you for sharing your time, expertise, and inspiration in both the kitchen and the garden. We appreciate your dedication to helping our community learn and grow!
Volunteer with us!
As we gear up for the 2026-2027 Chef in the Garden season, we're excited to open up our first round of volunteer opportunities.
Don't miss the final workshop in our public culinary training series! In this fast-paced, hands-on experience, participants will rotate through three chef-led stations to sharpen their knife skills, batch cooking, and volume baking techniques while gaining practical ideas they can put to work immediately in school kitchens. Space is limited to 50 participants, so register early—and bring your kitchen team to learn, collaborate, and leave inspired.
As we begin a new school year and celebrate our 10th anniversary, we're asking every supporter to reach just one more person. Invite a friend to a volunteer or fundraising event, share you experience with our organization, or introduce someone who believes in hands-on, experiential learning and food education for students to our community. If each of us brings one person along, the impact we create together in the next decade can be even greater than in our first.
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