If you want to be inspired by the passion and dedication of a future leader, you should come to Rockford Illinois to meet Kolten Luvert. At 12 years old Kolten already has 4 years of leadership experience growing food and educating his community about healthy food choices.

Kolten’s role as an educator and advocate for urban agriculture began when he started working in the Roots & Wings’ garden at Northwest Community Center through the Comprehensive Youth Services (CYS) program in partnership with Angelic Organics Learning Center.  Kolten was a natural at gardening, but learning how to get up in front of a group of his peers and lead was a little more challenging.

“When I started working with Roots & Wings I hated speaking in front of people,” admitted Kolten. “Now, because of Roots & Wings, talking in front of people is something I do all the time. It makes things like giving book reports at school easy!”

As a Youth Leader, Kolten has spoke at local, regional, and national events. Some of the his audiences have included youth and adults at Concord Commons, Salvation Army Kilburn Community Center, Northwest Community Center and the North End Commons Farmer’s Market.  Kolten has also co-developed and co-presented to the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois, United Way of Rock River Valley, and Heifer International.

“I get to teach people who are older than me about growing, cooking, and eating healthy food and that makes me proud,” said Kolten.

Koten views Roots & Wings as important to Rockford because it helps people learn how to save money by growing their own food, it keeps kids off the streets, and it help people learn how to stay away from becoming sick because of the food they eat. “Obesity is a big problem in people’s lives,” says Kolten, “ We need to help teach more people to understand that eating healthy will be good for them later in life.”

Kolten teaches others from his own experience. At home, he grows his own food and compost with worms.  When he helps shop for food, or before he eats processed food, he looks at the back of the package to see what in it. Kolten, also, tries to eat slowly and enjoy his food. “Now, I think before I eat,” he said.

“Kolten has become more responsible in all areas of his life,” explains Kim Lurvet, Kolten’s mother. “ Not only has he has helped our family start recycling, we also eat produce we get from our backyard garden that he planned and planted. Last year we had so many green beans, it was great!”  Their family’s garden for the 2010 growing season is well on it way. Kolten and his father, Victor Luvert, are planning to load their truck up with free mulch from the City of Rockford for both their family’s garden and the Salvation Army’s Kilburn Community Center garden, where Kolten, along with his fellow Youth Leaders, grow fresh food for themselves, their families, and the community.

In the future Kolten hopes that the Youth Leaders of Root & Wings will have their own headquarters where they can demonstrate different growing techniques and hold workshops and trainings about things like creating worm bins or starting an organic garden on a budget.  “I think by having a headquarters in Rockford, we will be able to help more people learn how to grow food themselves and that’s really important to me.”