November 2011

The day is sunny and chillier than it looks, with the kind of nip in the air that makes East Coasters recall perfect apple-picking days. Berkeley isn’t for apple picking though, at least not today; today is for grubbing in the dirt. A group of boys— thirteen or fourteen years old—wield shovels with panache. Dirt flies, and a line of freshly turned earth emerges. In another corner of the one-acre plot of land, a group of girls is potting seedlings near the glasshouse. They bend over their charges like sandhill cranes in the water, all limbs and elbows and jointy, pointy lines. The chatter of schoolchildren is a high-pitched babble above the measured tones of our capable guide, who is taking us through what is The Edible Schoolyard at Martin Luther King middle school in Berkeley, California.

When Alice Waters walked by King school on her way home from Chez Panisse in the early ‘90s, she thought the place was derelict. There were boarded up windows, graffiti on the walls, and a chain link and padlock around the main doors. A chance public comment about this misuse of urban space made her aware that in fact 1,000 students came to King every school day. She got a call from the principal of the school at the time, who invited her to help him revitalize the institution. On the afternoon they spent together, they came up with the idea for a school garden in which to grow produce, a working kitchen to teach the students about nutrition, and a school lunch program, to bring the healthy, delicious food into the cafeteria and influence student eating on a daily basis. The seed of the Edible Schoolyard (ESY) was planted.

Almost twenty years later, every student in King rotates through the ESY curriculum. As we tour we notice the many gathering spaces in the garden.

There is the “ramada gathering circle” bordered by mulberries and red currants. Under an arching tree near the tool shed, hay bales provide an informal amphitheatre, so that teachers can bring their science class in, discuss photosynthesis, and then scatter and get to work. There are many jobs to be done, from turning the compost pile, to harvesting amaranth, which will be dried, ground and cooked in the kitchen. There is no weeding though. The venture of garden time is kept fun and engaging. This connection to the land and a physical understanding of where food comes from is too big an opportunity to squander by having students get bored.

In the kitchen there is a 6^th grade humanities class learning about Mexican culture. They celebrate Dia de Muertos. To my grandmother who was a stylish dresser and loved big hats! is one exuberant remembrance. I made mine for Fred Weasley from Harry Potter is spruced with a pair of thunderbolts. Another said,

My grandpa Joe he loved to rhyme.

He loved it so much he rhymed all the time.

On his typewriter he wrote all of his poems.

And now his typewriter is at my home.

There is much to honor about keeping faith in cultural traditions, discovering classroom content through hands-on learning, and exploring in delicious depth the linkages between what we eat, and where it comes from. The visitors had to resist the wafting spice of cinnamon as students and their chef teachers bit into their pan de muerto. We left the long kitchen, inspired by what we had seen.

Sunisa

Resources:

• We also like the Australian organization doing very similar work, Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Foundation.
• You can see more photos of the Edible Schoolyard at Sunisa's blog.