Gardens to Grow On
By Romney Steele | Photo by Carole Topalian
The Edible Schoolyard at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley is a thriving one-acre garden next to a sprawling asphalt playground. Olive trees, rosemary bushes, and flowering sage frame the entrance to this spectacular space. On a fall visit, it smelled of thyme and wet mulch. Zinnias were still blooming and there were rows of leafy cabbage almost ready for harvest. The last of the watermelons were hidden between the vines, and beans were in the ground. It also happened to be the day after Prince Charles visited, and I felt a bit excited, as though I were riding in on his coat tails.
But taking in the view, I was struck by the realness of this garden—that it was not particularly manicured, and that it was still very much in progress, with lots of dirt and new plantings under way. There were weeds and empty beds, and assorted projects in mid-stream. Hoses lingered between the rows. Even with all the attention this garden has received over the years, it was clear that it remains an active learning garden where kids still turn the compost and participate in the upkeep.
The Edible Schoolyard works with 600 middle school students per week. Out of a student body of 900 students, 40 percent are eligible for a free or reduced lunch. In a school where there are over 20 different languages spoken in the home, the garden becomes a common thread that brings students together. At King, every student works in the garden program for nine weeks each season, rotating between time outdoors and in the well-equipped kitchen, where they learn how to cook the vegetables and fruits that they planted, and where they sit down to meals served family style. It is a stellar program, teaching kids basic life skills and introducing them to good food and the pleasures of the table. Founded by Alice Waters, it is still going strong in its tenth year and still supported largely by the Chez Panisse Foundation, a small core staff, and dedicated families and community members. It has been a model program for other school gardens and has garnered huge publicity and interest across the country.
The Hayward Nutritional Learning Community Project
Just down the freeway but without the fanfare is another model program, The Hayward Nutritional Learning Community Project, now in its fourth year. Apart from the innovative work in Berkeley, the Hayward Unified School District (HUSD) is one of the only districts in the state to adopt a district-wide curriculum to teach kids about food and health through science-based lessons in the garden. Incorporating curriculum from Botany on Your Plate and Math in the Garden, both developed by UC Botanical Gardens, and LiFE (Linking Food with Environment) developed at Columbia University, their program is comprehensive and has been adopted by all of their schools. Out of 14 elementary schools, eight have established gardens and the rest have gardens in the planning phase. The district is developing programs appropriate to their middle school students and they have site-specific programs in their high schools. Currently, biology students at Tennyson High School have paired up with Fred Hempel of Baia Nicchia Tomatoes to grow heirloom tomatoes best suited to the Bay Area and they are learning about seed saving in the process.
The garden education program, coordinated by the indefatigable Chris Boynton, former teacher and a founder of the program, is teacher directed in the classroom, and taught by garden/nutrition educators hired by the district and now in place in most of the schools. “How can we use gardens to change peoples ideas about food,” says Boynton in describing the philosophy behind the program. With nationwide child obesity a growing issue, the question deserves attention. And in this largely immigrant city where HUSD figures show 44 percent Latino, 37 percent Asian, Filipino, Pacific Islander, and African American (combined), and 19 percent white, a high percentage of students are eligible for free and reduced lunches. And yet, 38 percent of students across the district are said to be obese and many more, according to Boynton, are straddling that line. “We have students that are obese and malnourished at the same time.”
Similar to The Edible Schoolyard, the Hayward program strives to teach kids about food and where it comes from. But unlike the Berkeley program, it is not centralized in one particular garden, nor does it have the ongoing support from a foundation. Kitchen classrooms in Hayward are rudimentary at best; they use butane stoves set up in the garden, and outdoor tables are used for preparing food and for lessons. The gardens are mostly in raised beds and are scattered between buildings and in different sections of each schoolyard. There are fading butterfly gardens with yarrow and rosemary next to newly planted broccoli and fava beans. Stocks of ruby colored amaranth bloom next to the remnants of a three sisters garden, and blackberry bushes. Hope and patience are evident in corner lots hoping to become the next garden addition. Most of the plants are donated, and seeds are saved for future planting. The district maintenance department’s lead landscaper, Scott Bolander, along with his crew, provides much of the ground work—irrigation, moving dirt, building, etc.—and is as much a part of the program’s success as are the classroom teachers and Boynton’s team of nutritional educators. In fact, the tables, wood for planter boxes, and all of the groundwork is paid for by the HUSD maintenance department and supplemented by donations and help form the community.
Growing a Dream
In late 2004, the UC Botanical Gardens used a grant from The Howard Hughes Medical Institute to work with Cherryland School of Hayward to learn more about how to make school gardens successful. In turn, the school implemented a charettes* process with the whole community. Families and community members were invited to a planning event along with faculty members and representatives from the Botanical Gardens. The participants formed groups, each of which mapped out and presented their ideas for a dream garden. Out of these ideas Lauri Twitchell, of the Botanical Gardens created blueprints for a dream garden consisting of 10 raised beds organized in an open rectangle shape with non-fruiting cherry trees marking the entrance to the space. A five senses garden, to include lemon trees and two sitting benches, is slated to go in at an adjacent corner and will eventually be accessible to the sidewalk, giving parents a way to enjoy the garden while waiting to pick up their kids. There will also be a butterfly-habitat garden. As of this year, raised beds have been installed in the main garden and the trees and tables are still in progress.
Teacher Becky Button is the face behind Cherryland Garden and is spearheading its ongoing progress with the help of dedicated, former parent and gardener, Mr. Green. She has a bubbly personality that infects her class of fourth graders, who cheerily demonstrated “breathing like a butterfly” and “growing like a sunflower,” two of the warm up exercises she uses to prepare the kids for working in the garden. While half of the group worked in their “stem journals” under the guidance of their core teacher, the rest gathered around Ms. Button and listened eagerly to her instructions on the proper use of a trowel—no pointing at each other was rule number one. Working in pairs, the kids dug holes and then planted pansies, which had been donated by Ms. Button’s neighbor. They named the pansies—one was Violet, another Dana, another Trunks. When someone suggested naming one Luigi, the kids broke out in laughter. One little boy, named Anthony, was asked what he liked best about working in the garden. He looked up thoughtfully and said, “You can take care of the plants. They’re very important to the world. They give us good food and keep us strong.” Then he went back to journaling—apples, pineapples, tomatoes . . .
The whole idea behind Hayward’s program is to help children make the link between food and environment, ultimately teaching them how to make healthier choices for their body. Learning through an integrated science-based curriculum gives them a larger understanding of their universe, of how things are interconnected, and of how they themselves can become caretakers of their environment and stewards of the earth. Already, an astonishing 50 percent more fruits and vegetables are being consumed in the schools where programs are in place. All of Hayward’s school cafeterias have salad bars and fruit bowls, and kids who are eligible for a free lunch can have as much fruit and vegetables as they want. Local farmers, such as J.E. Perry Farms of Fremont, provide organic produce to the schools for their “harvest of the month program,” which involves a lesson plan centering around one seasonal fruit or vegetable. So far this year they have sampled apples, kiwis, and currently Satsuma oranges; each student receives a piece of that fruit or vegetable they are studying. These connections are vital and for some students they could provide the missing link to a world where the garden and fresh food are an important part of daily life.
*The term charette is borrowed from the French word for cart, such as the ones used by nineteenth century architecture students to carry their drawings to and from a destination. Today it essentially refers to the creative process that is used by an organization to reach a design solution and includes the participation of everyone involved.
Did You Know
According to a 2003 survey conducted by The University of California Cooperative Extension in Alameda County, there are more than 120 school gardens actively in place in our county. Most of them are gardening in raised beds and are teaching environmental education, nutrition, and community life.
Learn More
Farm to School: farmtoschool.org
Botany on your Plate: ucbgdev.berkeley.edu
Rethinking School Lunch program: ecoliteracy.org
Harvest of the Month: ripplerileythomas.com
Edible Schoolyard: edibleschoolyard.org
Romney Steele (aka Nani) grew up in a family owned restaurant on the central coast, where she first learned to cook. She is interested in food economies and community gardening programs and has a fondness for lemon trees. Romney lives in Oakland with her two children.
