Aspiring to be a garden intern over the summer, senior and co-chair of St. Louis Park’s (SLP) annual SEEDS Earth Day event Lindsey Prestholdt said over 200 individuals received a free meal April 24.  

Prestholdt said the main event was a community gathering which supplied families with meals.  

“For a lot of students, it provided them a free meal. We do have a lot of students who do struggle with access to food, so anyone who needed dinner that day would come and have free food,” Prestholdt said.

Senior and attendee of the event Kurt Nystuen said he admires the creativity of the SLP SEEDS Earth Day event.  

“Because Roots N Shoots is an important part of the school and supporting that through the activity known as SEEDS is equally as important to the people who are both involved with the community and very intelligent,” Nystuen said.

According to Prestholdt, the event organized by SLP SEEDS,  a non-profit organization, consisted of activities that helped students recognize the issues of hunger and ways to help prevent this in the future.

“The main event (was) a giant community meal. We served veggies and quinoa. We had activities for kids such as a food mosaic and building blocks,” Prestholdt said. “We also had information booths, Roots N Shoots, SEEDS information booth, Park Ambassadors (and) a food panel.”

Nystuen said maintaining environmental sustainability will help improve the upcoming generation lifestyle.

“Earth Day is important because preservation for the earth as it is now would ultimately lead to probably extension in certain events, so we need to preserve it so that the next generation can enjoy it as well,” Nystuen said.

Prestholdt said she believes Earth Day is a celebration that is not acknowledged as much as it should be.  

“I definitely think that it is an unrecognized holiday, but I think that it’s going to be discussed more in the future as people realize that environmental sustainability really is an issue and something that we need to focus on,” Prestholdt said.

According to Prestholdt, by taking risks in life she was able to find her devotion to keeping a healthy dietary lifestyle.

“I think that following your passion is really the purpose in life and if you don’t do that, then you’re not really enjoying yourself,” Prestholdt said. “I knew I was into healthing eating and health for the community so I just took that leap of faith and ended up loving it. That’s how I found a passion that I didn’t really know about at first.”

Nystuen said Earth Day is significant because it brings awareness to ways people can contribute to keeping the earth a healthy and enjoyable environment to live in.

“Earth Day is important to me because I enjoy the earth and nature and I think that these things are important to preserve,” Nystuen said.

According to Prestholdt, the event also supported internship opportunities for students.

“I also think it was good because it helped promote our internship program,” Prestholdt said. “SLP SEEDS takes on between three and ten interns every year and those interns could do a number of things such as plan and organize events (and) maintain our gardens.”