Edible Schoolyard Third Blog Posting

General Edible Schoolyard Research

Students at the University of Kentucky took a course specifically on organic farming and gained a great amount of knowledge and respect for farmers and their way of life. These students learned the appreciation of time and time management after witnessing how local farmers nurture their crops on a daily basis. Students who are active in cultivating the garden will become much more diversely knowledgeable about the methods of raising crops and going through the process of distributing them to others in the community. Students learned how to incorporate sustainable development into farming and agriculture along with their daily lives. These students learned to greatly appreciate nature and the outdoors by taking this course and working in the garden.

If enough students become interested in working in the garden, there is a possibility of creating a class outside of the Living Learning Center involving the Edible Schoolyard. Creating this class will allow students to learn by not only working hands-on in the garden, but also gaining literary and scientific knowledge about how to improve their garden. Students will be able to use the crops they raise for their own. Being poor college students, the thought of not having to pay as much for food might sound nice. Having the crops they raised on their own will give them a sense of greater satisfaction when the cook their own meals with them. By learning the ways of sustainable development in agriculture the students and faculty will learn to incorporate this new way of thinking into other subjects as well.

Does being involved with a garden change a college student’s view of the food they consume?

I feel that being involved in a garden will definitely change the student’s view of the food they eat but not enough to make them want to change what they currently eat. When you produce your food from a garden, you get to see the process from start to finish and the satisfaction of knowing you did it all yourself rather than just buy whatever you could be growing in a garden. It’s a daunting task to trace the ingredients of a meal back to its source but we usually don’t stop to think about where it came from. Each ingredient of the average American meal travels about 1,500 miles to get to you. Grocery stores litter the U.S. and most of them are stocked by non-local sources. They have made it convenient for us to get the food we want when we want. We can buy fruits and vegetables out of season the entire year and even food that is grown nowhere in the US.

However, if it does change the way a student views the food they consume, and they turn to eating out of a garden, they can enjoy many benefits both immediate and some that are not.

• Cuts down on the use of fossil fuels and leads to an altogether a healthier planet.
• It is a more sustainable and personal means of consumption.
• It creates a more personal understanding of where food comes from.
• Eating the freshest food is the healthiest for both people and the earth.
• You can breed your food for a full ripe taste.
• Growing from a garden means no hormones and DNA manipulations.
• There is a reduction of emission of carbon dioxide and harmful gasses into our atmosphere when we travel less to obtain food.
• Eating from a garden also limits what we eat therefore people who chose to use it benefit greatly in health.

What goes into creating an Edible Schoolyard?

In 1995, famous chef Alice Waters began an Edible Schoolyard at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle school in response to her realization about increasing obesity among students in the public school system. According to an article published in December 2006, “[She] began with an unused, abandoned acre on the side of Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School and planted it with seasonal produce, herbs, vines, berries, flowers and fruit trees. The garden now also includes a seed propagation table, tool shed, wood-fired oven, picnic area and chicken coop. Two teachers, the chef teacher and the garden teacher and manager, run the program. Throughout the school year, sixth, seventh and eighth grade students are involved in the garden and kitchen, preparing the beds, sowing the seeds, transplanting, composting, watering, weeding and harvesting. Kitchen activities include preparing the recipe of the day, setting the table, eating, cleaning up and preparing scraps for compost.” Another article published in September 2006 describes an Edible Schoolyard that is being established in New Orleans to help in the recovery from Hurricane Katrina. “Ten years strong at the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California, Alice Waters’s Edible Schoolyard is sprouting new growth at the Samuel J. Green Charter School in New Orleans, the site of Waters’s first full-blown satellite program.” The man who started Green School is now the principal. “Tony Recasner, a psychologist and former Loyola University faculty member, opened Green School in January—four months after Katrina.” “Although development of the garden and the kitchen classroom will take time, food is already a critical part of the Green School curriculum. Students will be involved in planning the garden and will visit with local farmers and chefs. And cafeteria food purchased from Louisiana farmers will insure that they eat “fresh and local” while the school puts down roots in its community.” All of this research suggests that it is good for students to be involved with the entire process of developing an Edible Schoolyard. In the Green School of New Orleans the students are going to be involved with planning the garden, deciding what to plant and how to lay out the schoolyard. In our project we will also be working with students who want to be involved with the Edible Schoolyard to plan out what to plant, when to plant, and how things should be laid out in the garden to be aesthetically pleasing and functional. In an article from Organic Gardening Magazine Nov/Dec 2005 edition there are actual steps to help schools develop their own Edible Schoolyards:

“How to get started:

Form a garden committee. A group of parents must convince teachers and school board members the importance of having a garden. They must also convince teachers that this is a priority; a lasting, sustainable program; and a benefit to students,

Present the committee's proposal to the school board. Include the identification of a site on school grounds or nearby; a safety and maintenance plan; and well-defined roles for parents, teachers, administrators, volunteers, and students.

Broaden your appeal. Engage other parents and officials by showing them how the garden will improve their children's health and the health of the community. Look for local, state, and federal grants addressing childhood health and education issues. Seek out local partners through the business and social-services communities.

Call for volunteers. Service programs such as AmeriCorps are one source. Garden manager Kelsey Siegal started at the Edible Schoolyard as an AmeriCorps volunteer.”

In our project, the first step has not been a problem because there is already an Edible Schoolyard on campus and that makes it easier to convince school administrators that such an endeavor is beneficial. This project emphasizes the benefits of the LLC Edible Schoolyard and suggests that there should also be one on the other side of campus for students who are interested in gardening and growing their own food. Lacy Nichols, an RA in Cone Hall had already begun the second step that the article suggests and the current proposal that has been presented to the Housing and Residence Life department is posted above.