Colorado volunteers provide manpower for dozens of service projects

Xcel Energy's Day of Service is playing out over two-days with hundreds of volunteers signed up to do service work at about 40 projects across the state. About 150 volunteers started work at The Urban Farm in Denver on Friday morning.

"We couldn't do our work without these huge community service groups. They manage the big projects that smaller groups and staff can't get done," said Paige Heydon, Executive Director of The Urban Farm.

In just three hours the Xcel Energy volunteers will do weeding and cultivating in the Food Forest – a task which would take staff members some 80 hours to accomplish.

"Today is a lot about weeding. Right now, we're in the harvesting season, and so with that comes a lot of the preparation for next growing season. It's rooting out all of the weeds you see here,  being sure the plants are in a healthy state for next year," said Stanley Evans, Board President for The Urban Farm and a Data Scientist for Xcel Energy.

The Urban Farm has been around for 39 years. It started as an animal sanctuary and has now grown into a massive working farm and ag center. The Urban Farm serves about 20,000 kids a year through summer camps and fields trips. There are 175 animals that live on the farm; and it produces 12,000 pounds of produce each season which then gets donated back to the community. This is the first year Xcel Energy has done a service project at The Urban Farm.

"To have Xcel have the exposure and see something different, something that has been near and dear to my heart, as someone who grew up in an urban area and not having a lot of exposure to agriculture, for being able to have that opportunity for kids to come here as well as their families and adults to learn just how much goes into farming," Evans explained.

LINK: Xcel Energy's Day of Service

Xcel Energy's Day of Service continues tomorrow with more service projects across the state.