Have you heard of Katie Stagliano? When she was in the third grade, she put some cabbage seeds into the ground, and the cabbage that grew ended up being about forty pounds. Not wanting it to go to waste, she donated it to local soup kitchens, where it fed hundreds of people. Since then, she has been growing fresh vegetables to donate to local food drives, homeless shelters, and soup kitchens. How’s that for locavore activism?

Katie, now thirteen, is the subject of this week’s episode of Everday Health, a TV series profiling ordinary people overcoming extraordinary obstacles to help others live healthier lives. Episode 5, airing this Saturday (tomorrow…sorry for the short notice) on local ABC stations tells the story of Katie’s Krops, a movement to get kids to grow food to help their communities. Katie has 6 gardens of her own, and 11 more in other states. Clearly, she is on to something, and of course the best way to instigate change is to get to the kids.

The episode also brings in Ellie Krieger, a chef and dietician, to help Katie prepare and serve a special meal.

The show focuses on ways to get kids involved in growing fresh, local food and helping them enjoy healthy eating. Watching it with your kids just might get them to see how cool it is to grow and eat their vegetables, and Ellie might give you some ideas of ways to prepare those veggies so that your kids will find them irresistible.

Whether or not you get any kid-feeding tips out of it, Katie’s story is certainly inspiring to all of us trying to make a difference in our communities by supporting, growing, and sharing local, fresh, healthy food.

For more information on the show, you can visit the show’s website.

For more information on Katie and her organization, check out her website.