The Winyan Toka Win Garden provides more than food items for meals and gifts. It offers hands-on learning opportunities to young children and teens, serving as an outdoor classroom for The Main’s Garden Club and Cokata Wiconi’s Native Food Sovereignty Teen Internship. Throughout the growing season, Cheyenne River’s children spend countless hours in the garden, planting seeds, weeding, watering and eventually harvesting.
While the 4- to 12-year-olds document their experiences in colorful journals, the teen interns move on to Cokata Wiconi’s commercial kitchen, where the produce is processed for healthy meals and snacks at both centers, menu items in the Keya Cafe, and gift items in the Keya Gift Shop.