Questions for Edible
Schoolyard NYC from CAS students answered by Natasha Eziquiel-Shriro
1. How much of the
produce grown is used for school lunch? Edible Schoolyard NYC’s goal is to grow food
for our Kitchen Classroom lessons and Family Cooking Nights. A few times a year we try to supply
ingredients to the cafeteria but it is not our primary goal.
2. How much produce is
harvested? Is it enough for the entire school to eat? Last year was our first growing season and we harvested over
3,000 pounds of food. This year will be even more. In the Kitchen Classroom lessons, every
student has the opportunity to eat straight from the garden.
3. How do you get the
parents involved? We host a variety of events to involve parents
in both the garden and Kitchen Classroom program. Twice a week parents can stop by the garden
with their students after school for Open Garden. About once a month families can come for a Family
Workday in the garden (held on weekend mornings) and attend Family Cooking
Nights (weekday nights) where they learn how to prepare a simple recipe with
ingredients from the garden. We involve
our parents in the garden and Kitchen Classroom because we want them to become
familiar with the ingredients their students learn to grow, cook and love. When our students go home and ask their parents
to buy radishes because they tasted them in class, we want the parents to be
empowered to buy them and know how to create a delicious and affordable meal
with them.
4. During the winter
season do the children still have access to fresh food? Yes, our garden is a four-season garden. We harvest every month of the year. We achieve this by extending the growing
season with a hoophouse. We also plan to begin construction on our greenhouse
this summer which will allow us to grow all types of produce into the colder
months.
5. What is the cost of
integrating the program into schools (creating a garden, buying seeds...etc)? Edible Schoolyard NYC builds gardens, sets up
a Kitchen Classroom and employs staff to teach the curriculum and provides family
programming all at no cost to the school.
6. Do the children really
eat the produce? Do you think it makes a
difference that they helped grow it? Yes! Our students love radishes, arugula, lemon
sorrel and much more! Research (and our
daily experiences at Edible Schoolyard NYC) show that involving children in the
growing and preparing of their own food can have a lasting effect on their
eating habits. Students who grow and harvest their own vegetables are more
likely to eat them. They also show a willingness to try new foods, which is
often the first step toward developing healthier eating patterns.
7. Will you be
expanding? If so, do you target certain
schools? For example, low income public schools, private schools...etc? How can
other schools get involved? Our goal
is to take the model we’ve developed at P.S. 216 and replicate it at one
low-income, public elementary school in the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens and Staten
Island, while simultaneously providing training and
best practices to all the other elementary schools in each borough to provide
an edible education to all of their students.
We are in the process of picking the next four sites, but any school
will be able to get involved soon through our professional development
program. We hope to pilot it this
summer.
8. Do you offer
programs/lessons for the public? At this time we do not, but we will soon offer
our curriculum to teachers and educators through professional development.
9. Is there an Edible
Schoolyard advisor/ educator always present at the participating schools? Yes, our garden teacher or Kitchen Classroom teacher teaches
every class taught in their respective spaces.
10. Is
gardening considered a class or after school activity for the
children? How is it integrated into the
curriculum? Gardening and Kitchen Classroom lessons are both considered
classes. We teach two consecutive garden
lessons to each class every month, starting in kindergarten and continuing
through 5th grade. These
lessons connect the academic content from each grade to something the students
can do and observe in the garden each month.
For example, in April, kindergartners begin their study of plant roots,
taking spatial considerations into account as they lay out garden beds in
patterns. In second grade, students
build on the math and science knowledge involved with this concept, measuring
the distance between the seedlings they plant and engaging in a more in-depth
examination of root systems. By fifth
grade, students will calculate expected yields from their seedlings and put
these skills to work organizing a harvest event for their community.
Each
lesson includes related writing activities and other extensions that teachers
can bring back into the classroom.
First graders, for example, can compose poems about the signs of spring
while fourth graders can create public service announcements to educate others
about the distances foods travel.
Finally, each lesson suggests several other specific content area
extensions that classroom teachers can employ if they want further connections
between the garden and their grade-level curriculum.
In the
Kitchen Classroom students cook together with freshly harvested produce from
the Edible Schoolyard garden and eat a freshly prepared dish, sharing the
fruits of their labor around a communal table. As they cook and eat their
way through the school year, students’ understanding of eating local and
seasonal foods strengthens and grows.
Every
lesson has a nutrition education component geared towards improving students’
eating behavior, and providing them with the knowledge, skills and environment
to make healthy choices throughout their lives. Kitchen classroom lessons are
companion lessons to our garden education.
Like the garden classes, kitchen lessons are standards-based and contain
extensions for classroom teachers to draw upon.
