My Story

Hey gardeners, 

Today I would like to share my story stepping into the Consumption Literacy Project. My name is Alexandra Shelffo, a rising junior at Denver North High School. 

To begin with, when I was younger I would adore spending time in the garden with my mom; helping her weed and plant. As I grew older I ran out of time and opportunities to continue gardening and being involved environmentally but knew this had to change.

Although, it wasn’t until last year when I began to notice how much of a toll our earth was taking; enduring climate change and the new waste consumer created by humans, AI.   After seeing the effects of what was happening to the earth I began to get involved. To do so, I contacted my school future advisor; Ms.Rula, to see what opportunities the school was offering. After speaking with her, I discovered that there was an organization willing to teach me and help get involved to create change directly in my community, the CLP. This was the true beginning of my journey.

With this organization I soon found out that I had the opportunity to become more aware as to what was happening in our world, creating the intense changes we saw and how I could be a part of the clean up. This opportunity meant I was able to come on as an intern with the CLP and learn from amazing mentors such as Ashley G and Austine Luce! This internship brought me so much knowledge and passion about gardening, sustainability and the importance of keeping our world clean.

So, when the internship began to end I knew I had to continue to be involved.

With this will to remain active in the garden and the organization I was brought on to the CLP as an apprentice to finish the summer off!

After my amazing summer with the Consumption Literacy Project and moving into the new year I knew I had to be engaged in the same type of work so, I came back to the CLP for a second internship; bringing my new found knowledge to my personal community. 

Moving towards this summer and past school year, I have been able to clear out and kickstart a community garden at my High School! With the support and assistance of the Consumption Literacy Project; I have been able to dedicate over 20 hours and created a garden club at my school to transform and turn what was once a large rectangle of overgrown weeds and trash into a lovely, flourishing garden space!

The plot was originally created as a community garden run by parents and staff in 2012, running successfully for 7 years until it was abandoned a few years back; unkept and ignored. This past year I have taken it upon myself to turn it back into its intended use; a community garden. 

Moving forward; this summer, I will continue to be a part of the CLP team; learning and supporting 3 gorgeous community gardens and 2 food banks, while also taking my knowledge and experiences to build & lead a thriving community garden at my school.  

So far, my school garden has cucumbers, tomatoes, cilantro, beets, carrots, squash, cabbage onions, garlic and parsley planted; prepping for harvest!  

This summer, continue to follow along to see updates to the gardens, harvests, fun hacks and much more from the Consumption Literacy Project!

From, Alexandra Shelffo and the Consumption Literacy Project