Throughout the semester, I
have been working with the Edible Schoolyard. Basically it is a program that
has sprouted since Katrina to grow fresh produce at the schools to promote
students to use local ingredients. They integrate “hands-on
organic gardening and seasonal cooking into the school curriculum, culture, and
cafeteria programs.” They have five charter schools throughout the New Orleans
area, and I worked at the Samuel J Green Charter School at Freret and Valence
(roughly).
Every
Monday I attended the Budding Entrepreneurs afterschool program to volunteer.
In this program, 5th through 8th graders learn how to
harvest the produce in their garden to create products ranging from jams and
sauces to ornaments and recyclable greeting cards. They then sell these
products at local markets.
When I
first went, I really had no idea what to expect. It’s been a long time since
I’ve been a 5th through 8th graders, and I don’t really
know any, so I can’t remember how they act. Well I got there, and I was
reminded that middle schoolers really have no status quo—except maybe being
loud. Granted, some of the children were very sweet and I will miss them dearly
now that my hours have been completed, but there ere some children that made me
want to walk out and never see a middle schooler ever again (as in, giving my
own children away between the ages of 10 and 14). For example, there was a girl
whose name I can’t remember right now, who would just walk around the
schoolyard aimlessly a third of the time, text her “boyfriend” a third of the
time, and smart off to the teacher the rest of the time. I even said to the
teacher once, “if I were you, I would have smacked all these kids a long time
ago.” She laughed, but I don’t think she knew I was being serious.
Anyway,
the actual program was a really amazing thing that these students got to
participate in. One of my favorite days was when the teacher, who I will now
refer to as Miss Jess, brought in several different produce from the Vietnamese
market on the West Bank. The students got to cut the produce and then taste all
of it; and this was all to make them aware of the Vietnamese diaspora. I
thought this was a very interesting way to enlighten students about different
cultures’ produce and how they can get it themselves.
Another
day we harvested all the mature okra and loofa plants in the garden and hung
them up to dry. Several weeks later when they were all dry, we made Christmas
ornaments out of them to sell at the Freret Street Market that went on this
past weekend.
These were some of the okra/loofas
that we harvested and hung to dry on long wooden sticks.
My
favorite memory of the Edible Schoolyard was when my favorite girl, Kaylyn
(yes, I played favorites; she was awesome), started belting out Rihanna and my
favorite boy, Tyrell, starting doing the back up beats for her! The whole group
of kids sitting with us joined in, and it was awesome. This has absolutely
nothing to do with the actual Edible Schoolyard, but it probably gives you a
sense of what kind of environment these students get to work in.
The
Edible Schoolyard is an amazing program and I encourage you all to check it out
sometime. They do so many more things for their students besides Budding
Entrepreneurs including gardening clubs, drum lines, dance teams, etc. it’s
also amazing to me that this community can work so well together to create and
maintain such a beautiful garden (I’ll post pictures below). The students have
even sold their produce to Company Burger! Attending this school has made me
much more aware of what I’m eating and where it’s coming from, and I think that
if I can learn that in just a few short sessions with the students, I can’t
imagine the amount of knowledge that they’re retaining from attending this
school their entire childhoods.
This is their compost
area, where the students throw their snack leftovers (i.e. apple cores, orange
peels)
No comments:
Post a Comment