Please share your mission. 
Purple Asparagus’ mission is to educates children, families, and the community about eating that’s good for the body and the planet.
Describe how your organization lives/realizes its mission.
Through our DNA and other community programming we directly further our mission. Our programming employs our unique approach to teaching students at an early age that whole foods are healthy, fun, and worth exploring. Over the course of the year students try over 36 often fruits and vegetables and use many of them to make over 20 recipes on their own. Through this exploration they learn that trying new foods is fun and not scary; that the only way to know if they like a food is to try it; that they can not know if they will like it based on what someone else thinks; and that the whole foods we introduce them to are healthier for them than processed foods that many of them eat often. The impact is almost immediate when students return home from school with the recipes of what they made in the classroom and ask their parents if they can make them at home. Parents are often motivated to make healthier food at home, but if their children resist, they generally do not. The DNA program breaks down this barrier and allows parents more flexibility to try cooking new and healthier meals at home. In fact, the University of Chicago determined that 76% of the parents of students participating in our program cooked at least one of our recipes at home and that 66% had been inspired to try other recipes. This is in addition to the direct impact on the increase of fruits and vegetables students eat after participating in the program (57% eat more fruits and 44% eat more vegetables).
