Starring Viola Buitoni and her son Ernesto
A few things about Viola Buitoni: she’s Italian, she’s a mother, she can cook, she lives in the Mission. Find out how they intersect in her life in this series of articles and videos.
The ingredients for this dish came from the gardens run by Urban Sprouts at the June Jordan School for Equity in Visitation Valley and the International Studies Academy in Potrero Hill. Urban Sprouts offers many San Francisco Public School students a garden-based education. The video to the right shows a visit to the gardens.
If the veggies come from a school garden, how is she able to take them for personal use?
Dear Buzzgirl-Thank you for your input. Public schools all over the city are getting creative in forging relationships with people that can create streams of funds to combat the ever increasing education budget cuts. Many chefs harvest some of the excellent produce of those gardens, and, in exchange for that honor, make contributions to the cause of garden education. I am one of the few who vocally publicizes this, therefore raising awareness for the work of Urban Sprouts and other similar organizations. My family has donated to Urban Sprouts as well as to the garden of San Francisco Community, the Excelsior public school my son attends. If you care to find out more about Urban Sprouts’ work their site is: http://www.urbansprouts.org/. You can also look at http://www.my-sfcs.org/ to get more information about SF Community’s garden. Best-Viola