“Sung Ei knelt among the thriving rows of Swiss Chard and blooming beets under the hot sun at DeLaney Community Farms and pointed to the drip irrigation line that wound along the ground, nourishing the vegetables.
“Growing food here is a lot different than back home,” Ei, 36, said through a translator on a recent day. “In Burma, we would grow the vegetables and water the crops by bringing well water to them in buckets. I’ve learned a lot from being here, it’s hard to describe how much.”
Ei is one of the first Burmese refugee to intern at DeLaney Community Farms since the site’s organizers from Denver Urban Gardens partnered last year with Project Worthmore, a north Aurora-based nonprofit that works with the refugee community living along East Colfax Avenue.
“Our mission as an educational community farm is food access, sustainable agriculture and community development,” said Heather DeLong, director of DeLaney Community Farm for Denver Urban Gardens. “Project Worthmore cares so much about getting healthy food out to the local refugee community. It was a natural fit.”
