Edible Schoolyard at PS 216 in Brooklyn

We visited the Edible Schoolyard at PS 216 in early Spring and loved what we saw!  Here are some pictures and an interview we conducted via email.

Their crops just starting to emerge.

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 5^th 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.

The space has various areas for learning and a beautiful hoop house.