World renowned organic chef Alice Waters changed the ground rules in a Berkley, CA school district and her revolution is catching on. The wasteland that once sat behind Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School is now teeming with life, knowledge and nutrition.
"Of all the things that people need to learn, perhaps nothing is more fundamental than knowing how to grow and prepare healthful food", said Alice Waters. "After all, food provides the stuff we’re made of."
“I believe that every child in this world needs to have a relationship with the land…to know how to nourish themselves and how to connect with the community around them.”
The one-acre organic garden, tended by students, features virtually everything that could be found in a very-well stocked farmers market-- including many varieties of greens and vegetables, sunflowers, herbs and even edible flowers. Using food systems as a unifying concept, students learn how to grow, harvest, and then prepare nutritious seasonal produce in the kitchen classroom.
Waters shares that “they learn about community and learn about respect when they are involved. They learn about life. They learn composting, recycling, harvesting, building a fire in an oven, planting seeds, worms and worm boxes. They think they are having a good time, too!" She laughs, "And they don't think of it as a class. Science and math teachers bring them outside to this garden and they think they are just outside having a good time because they are outside!"
The teachers also weave the program into their daily lesson plans. For example, the sixth grade class might bake flat bread as they learn about how people first stored food and moved toward an agrarian society when they study a unit on Neolithic history. Or drama classes might use food when they study props on sets or to learn about improvisation on the set. In English, they write recipes. Geography or language teachers integrate international foods into their lessons. According to Chelsea Chapman, assistant Edible Schoolyard program coordinator, the whole time kids are learning better nutrition and learning that food can be green - or other colors besides brown - and can still be appealing and taste delicious.
The idea for the garden came after former school principal Neil Smith contacted Waters, a local restaurateur, to ask for suggestions, and the edible schoolyard began to germinate.
According to current principal, Kit Pappenheimer, “Cultivating the earth, watching chickens lay eggs, gathering their harvest, and cooking their own food; these lessons literally bring school alive for our students. I believe connecting the food they eat with the planet they live on is essential to a child's understanding of the world today. The Edible Schoolyard is a hands-on, creative, and equitable opportunity for all our students to grow!"
Jack McLaughlin, Berkley school superintendent, called the project "the most exciting I’ve every done."
For more information visit www.edibleschoolyard.org.
For tips on how to start a similar program in your school or community visit http://www.edibleschoolyard.org/how_tips.html.
