Project Rooted

Hey Rooted Community,

It’s Whitney here, co-founder of Project Rooted, checking in with you on Earth Day.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what this day really means—not just as a headline or a theme we see once a year, but as something very real and very close to how we live every day.

The Earth isn’t separate from us. It’s in what we eat, the water we drink, the soil that grows our food, and the air we share. It’s in the neighborhoods we walk through, the gardens we tend (or wish we had time to tend), and the quiet moments when we finally step outside and remember to look up.

And honestly, it’s easy to forget all of that in the pace of life.

That’s why I love what Earth Day can do—it slows us down just enough to notice again.

At Project Rooted, we talk a lot about connection. Connection to food. Connection to each other. Connection to where things actually come from. And Earth Day feels like an extension of that same idea. Because when we understand our connection to the Earth, it changes the way we move through the world. It makes even small choices feel meaningful—what we plant, what we compost, what we share, what we teach our kids, what we choose to value.

And it doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to be big.

Sometimes it’s as simple as cooking a meal from ingredients you recognize. Or letting kids get their hands in the dirt. Or taking a walk without rushing to the next thing. Or choosing to care just a little more intentionally than we did yesterday.

Those small things matter more than we think.

So today, I’m just feeling grateful. Grateful for the Earth itself—its patience, its abundance, its ability to keep giving even when we haven’t always given back our best. And grateful for this community that believes in showing up in ways that are real, grounded, and rooted in care.

Happy Earth Day, friends.

May we keep learning from the Earth, and may we keep choosing to live in a way that honors it—not just today, but in all the ordinary days that follow.

Support our mission this Earth Day: https://projectrooted.kindful.com/

Rooted box in action!

A few years ago, Project Rooted partnered with Northeast Iowa RC&D on a virtual field trip series, and one of our favorite adventures was all about bees. It was such a great experience for kids to see where honey comes from and how important bees are to our food system.

This week in our lessons for the Rooted Box, we’re making cornbread and exploring toppings like butter, honey, and jam. Thinking back to that bee adventure feels like the perfect way to connect what we’re learning in the kitchen to the real world—seeing how the choices we make, like using local honey, support both our taste buds and our environment.

It’s little experiences like this that make learning about food so much more meaningful—and a lot more fun too!

Honey! How Is It Made? Let's buzz over to Hughes Happy Hives to learn how honey is made and harvested!https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100027312413201https://projectrooted.com

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