Da vis Ti ll y
Ph
o to gra
phy
ARTICLE DANA LAPINEL | PHOTOGRAPHY THE KITCHEN COMMUNITY
H
ave you heard of that old saying, “You are what you eat?” Or maybe this one: “The children are the future.” These two simple truisms are often overlooked. They may be known and often times heard, but there’s no significant motivation to abide by these simple words of wisdom. Kimbal Musk and Hugo Matheson, Colorado founding fathers of the farm-to-table movement, took action to not just follow one of these phrases, but both. They’ve created The Kitchen Community, a non-profit founded in 2011 that builds outdoor Learning Gardens across the U.S., teaching students about healthier food choices and ultimately building stronger communities through food.
TECH ROOTS
To start things off, there’s a whole other life behind the story of The Kitchen Community. We may have caught your ear at ‘Musk.’ The Musk we’re talking about is the younger brother of Elon Musk, who is the mind behind PayPal, Tesla Motors and SpaceX. Kimbal Musk was on board with all of these innovative companies since day one. It’s clear that the entrepreneurial spirit runs deep in the family. Both brothers have ideas of changing the world for the better.
“Getting involved with the internet, especially in the late
“Getting involved with the internet, especially in the 90s, was very, very exciting and I wouldn’t change anylate very, very exciting I wouldn’t thing 90s, aboutwas those experiences, but my and passion has al- change anything about those ways been food, ” says Musk.experiences, but my passion has always been food,” says Musk. South African-born and now Boulderite Kimbal Musk shied away from the sultans of Silicon Valley (although he’s still on the board for Tesla and SpaceX) and decided to pursue his childhood interest – food. “Growing up, I cooked in the house, and when I cooked everyone would sit down and eat, and it was just kind of the way I connected with my family,” says Musk. “The moment Elon and I sold our first internet company I knew I wanted to pursue food and become a trained chef.” So that’s just what he did. Musk moved across the country to New York City to pursue his passion. “I moved to New York and lived only a few blocks from the French Culinary Institute, so I decided to enroll. For a year I spent six hours a day being verbally abused by master chefs. In the class of 18, only six of us graduated,” says Musk. CONTINUED >
January 2016 | Boulder Lifestyle
53