By Jeff Clemetson | Editor

On April 15, area foodies will get a chance to sample the wares of local restaurants and craft breweries while supporting a local school at the annual Taste of Navajo event held at Mission Trails Regional Park Visitor Center.

The event is put on by the Green Elementary School Foundation, and this year the proceeds will raise money toward improving the school’s lunch area.

“We would like to beautify it and make it much more kid-friendly than it is now,” said Nikki Dodd, who is the chair of the lunch-area project. “Bring some more color to it, some plants, get some kid artwork in here, make it more friendly. It doesn’t look very friendly right now, but we work with what we have.”

If past Taste of Navajo events are any indication to the success of this year’s fundraiser, the Foundation will have around $10,000 to work with this year, foundation president Erin Liddell said. The lunch-area project will cost around $20,000 and when completed will include a new fence, new landscaping, a water bottle-filling station, new garbage cans that cut down on odor and brighter colors to replace the browns and grays currently painted in the area.

“When [the students] come here, this should feel like kids instead of those more institutionalized places,” Green principal Sandra McClure said. “We want a place that is worthy of our kids. We want a place that is exciting.”

The Taste of Navajo is now in its fifth year. For the last several years, the event raised money to build the “state-of-the-art” running track at the school.

“At the beginning of the foundation’s life, we lost our magnet funding from San Diego Unified. We used to be the athletic magnet,” Liddell said. “So what we ended up doing is supplementing the cost of our PE teachers for two years and then after the PTA took over for arts and PE and music, we took over infrastructure. Our first project was this running track.”

This year and next, the Taste of Navajo will be funding the lunch-area upgrades and after that the foundation will need to pick a new project to build at the school, possibly a new library or performance auditorium, Liddell said.

“[Taste of Navajo] is a wonderful community event because, yes, the monies go the Green Elementary Foundation but with those infrastructure improvements, it improves upon our community, too,” she said.

Liddell also pointed out the benefit to the participating restaurants.

“The reason why a lot of these restaurants [participate] is, not only do we have an active parent community that’s in this Navajo area that will go out and support their businesses, but also this event draws parents from Patrick Henry, from Dailard, from Hearst, from Pershing, from all over so they understand that this a great way for them to showcase their signature bites and their restaurants,” she said.

This year’s participating restaurants and breweries include: Benchmark Brewing Co., Cowles Mountain Coffee, Cupcakes a la Yola, Gaglione Bros. Famous Steaks & Subs, Groundswell Brewing Co., Longhorn Bar & Grill, Nicolosi’s Italian Restaurant, The Trails Eatery, Rita’s, McGregor’s Grill & Alehouse and more.

In addition to the local food and beer, there will also be local entertainment from the Patrick Henry Jazz Quartet. There will be an on-site astronomer to guide guests at star gazing through powerful telescopes. There will also be a drawing for prizes from the participating restaurants.

Tickets for Taste of Navajo are $30 in advance and can be purchased online at tasteofnavajo.com. Tickets will be available for purchase at the door for $40.

—Write to Jeff Clemetson at [email protected].