Operation: Vegetables!

Operation Vegetables: The Big, Giant Board Game of Yummy Health! 

As an artist with a heart for sustainability, I created The Collinwood Painted Rain Barrel Project to engage my community to have fun with the barrels that are not so attractive but useful for free water and helping prevent untreated pollution from entering our fresh water source. 

I nurtured inner artists to design with confidence and wrote grants to plant gardens in spaces without access to them. As they grew, I painted their walls including local kids artwork as inspiration so they see themselves as a part of the garden: welcome to pick & eat.

I designed a giant board game with these kids in mind: libraries and rec centers provide lunches during Summers for kids, but they're often boring and half eaten thrown away or a few items shared. I offered art workshops at 3 locations – 2 libraries and our Salvation Army Summer camp, where the kids designed funny veggie superheroes, while I offered them fresh snacks to sample. New tastes; surprised kids.

The game is completed – the kids become game pieces and are active with cards picturing their characters along with funny junk foods with consequences for healthy eating (and not so healthy). Any local group will be able to reserve and play the game forever at the library.

I hope to repeat this at other local libraries, schools & rec centers.

If I receive the grant, I'll approach schools, libraries & rec centers to see if they want the workshops, then book workshops. I'll create more action cards for them to have personal connection to their version of the game.

I'll print large format vinyl game boards and build dice and action cards.

If the game site is interested, we'll start garden planning, then contract a local carpenter, arrange for rain barrel installation and start planting.

I’ll assess deer and pest control to plan for non-chemical responses where needed to maintain an organic garden.

Each game will have trained leaders in-house to own the game and book free reservations for supervised play.

I love watching my daughter grow up with a love for growing her own cherry tomatoes & green beans. Watching seeds sprout and food growing has formed her taste for healthy foods. I was not so lucky to have this when I was a child. Eating out of cans and only having limited fresh choices stunted my palate, and affected my food choices.

I also live a block from Lake Erie and mourn the polluted waters that we cannot safely swim in, so I champion rain barrel use for the future health of our lake, and our love for the North Coast – hoping we can enjoy cleaner waters for our community.

This all can add color, arts and fun into our neighborhoods, growing bonds between our busy families and bringing generations together to play outside.