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Garden
of youth Middle schoolers' summer project is a part of a national trend that lets
students learn how to grow, distribute and enjoy organic food
GARDEN
STEPPINGSTONES
Hillside
garden a labor of love
On
the grounds New gardens, old buildings will greet 2006 Fair visitors
Plant
a rain garden
Retail
'village' rises in Winter Garden
Time
to give your garden a late-summer pick-me-up
Water,
water everywhere Going away Planning will keep your garden green
Garden
of youth Middle schoolers' summer project is a part of a national trend that lets
students learn how to grow, distribute and enjoy organic food
No
doubt about it, Xante Mitchell said with a sigh, this farming business is hard
work.
Moving along a freshly tilled row of collard greens, a light sweat
began to form on Xante's forehead as he clipped and bunched, clipped and bunched,
clipped and bunched.
"It's not all fun, but I like it a lot,"
the middle schooler said. "Fruits and vegetables are good for the soul."
Good for the soul, and the palate, and the community. That's the
idea behind Soil Born Farm, a lush oasis amid an urban jungle in the heart of
California's capital.
This summer, in a project funded by Kaiser Permanente
and modeled after a groundbreaking program in Berkeley, Xante and other students
at Jonas Salk Middle School in Sacramento learned some lasting lessons in the
power of growing, distributing and enjoying fresh organic food.
Urban kids
across the country have diets heavy in processed foods. But through the gardening
project, Jonas Salk students developed a new appreciation for fresh produce by
following it from the soil to the table.
On about 2 acres of land adjacent
to the school, they planted, nursed and harvested organic fruits and veggies,
which later found their way onto plates at fancy restaurants, into grocery store
bins, and inside the kitchens of students, staffers and grateful neighbors.
"That's
the best part," said Xante. "Helping people. Giving back."
Part
of a growing national movement to use urban farms as educational tools, the Soil
Born program is designed to teach children and the larger community healthier
eating habits. It is patterned after The Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, which
was founded by renowned chef Alice Waters of Chez Panisse.
Jonas Salk's
principal, Jaime Schrey, said she hopes to make the program a permanent part of
the school's curriculum. "Eventually, we're going to bring some of the food
to our cafeteria," she said. Program founders want to start similar programs
at other schools in the Sacramento area, and plan to launch a second farm next
year in Rancho Cordova.
"We want to help young people really connect
with the food they are consuming, and to help them understand the impact on their
health and the environment," said Shawn Harrison, who with Marco Franciosa
founded Soil Born Farm in 2000 as a business enterprise and later decided to turn
it into a community project. Soil Born gained nonprofit status in 2004, and last
year hooked up with Jonas Salk.
"These days there is not a lot of interaction
between the farmer and the consumer," Harrison said. "It's so important
for people to see where their food comes from and how it's grown."
Waters,
the guru of sustainable and organic agriculture, started The Edible Schoolyard
a decade ago in collaboration with Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley.
Since then, similar "farm to school" programs have sprung up across
the country, from Montana to Florida. Closer to home, the Davis Farm to School
Connection has been bringing fresh vegetables and fruits to elementary schools
in the area for several years.
School gardens, Waters has said, give students
a better understanding of how the natural world sustains us, and promote environmental
and social well being.
"Kids today are bombarded with a pop culture
that teaches redemption through buying things," the chef said in a 1997 speech
at a national conference titled A Garden in Every School.
"School gardens,
on the other hand, turn pop culture upside down. They teach redemption through
a deep appreciation for the real, the authentic and the lasting. Things that money
can't buy. Kids who learn environmental and nutritional lessons through school
gardening learn ethics."
Children who take part in such programs, Waters
said, learn about the health benefits of eating well and are less likely to become
overweight or develop illnesses related to obesity, such as diabetes.
Largely
hidden from the street off busy Hurley Way in the Arden Arcade area, the Soil
Born Farm location may seem like an unlikely spot for growing and harvesting crops.
The property was little more than a patch of weeds when Harrison and Franciosa,
whose backgrounds are in history but who share a love of farming, approached its
owner, Betsy Collins, with a proposal. They offered to farm her sandy loam in
exchange for supplying her with as much fresh produce as she could eat.
Collins
agreed, and soon Soil Born began selling goods produced on the land to the Sacramento
Natural Foods Co-op, Whole Foods Market and restaurants including Paragary's Bar
& Oven, Waterboy, Piatti, Tapa the World and The Kitchen. The farm also started
growing food for individual families who each week pick up boxes of tomatoes,
squash, cucumbers, peppers, lettuces, eggplant and whatever else happens to be
in season.
After the program gained nonprofit status, Soil Born began chatting
up teachers and administrators at the middle school, which shares a fenceline
with the farm property. "We said, 'Let's get something going,' " Harrison
recalled. "This was the perfect spot for a farm that could contribute to
a healthier community."
Late last year, Kaiser Permanente gave the
project a $30,000 Healthy Eating, Active Living grant. Jonas Salk students now
can get school credits for taking part in the gardening program.
Xante Mitchell
enrolled in this year's summer school class, and he and several other students
loved it so much that they kept gardening for weeks after the session ended. A
new group of students will take over in the fall.
The youths work under
the supervision of adult volunteers and Soil Born staffers, including Randy Stannard,
who helped Xante and his schoolmates harvest and distribute vegetables during
the dog days of August. They learned organic practices such as composting, and
techniques for dealing with aphids and other pests without using chemicals. They
tended to chickens and collected their eggs. They took cooking classes and made
dishes, including vegetable fried rice, featuring the fruits of their labor. Besides
working the land, the young farmers learned leadership and public speaking skills,
set up a farm stand to distribute produce to senior citizens in the area and hauled
bags of fruits and vegetables to people confined to their homes in a nearby housing
complex for the elderly and disabled.
"The seniors love the tomatoes,"
said Stannard on a recent morning as he helped Xante and another student, Samantha
Erickson, harvest tiny, sugary Sungold tomatoes from a row of towering vines.
"But they rave about all of our produce."
Xante and the other
students said their own families and neighbors are reaping the benefits of their
work as well.
"In my neighborhood not a lot of people have quality
stuff like this," Xante said, holding up a bunch of collard greens. "They
get their food at corner stores. Our organic stuff is better for you. It tastes
more natural."
Xante wowed his own family members with freshly harvested
carrots and tomatoes that they ate with roasted chicken, he said.
After
gathering crops on a recent day, Xante and the other students washed and packed
them in plastic bags, pausing at times to sample their wares.
"These
carrots are sweeeeeeeeet!" said Luis Garcia, crunching loudly to affirm his
opinion. Boxes of tomatoes large and small, striped ones and red ones and yellow
ones and a few the color of fresh peaches, were stacked to one side of him. Behind
him, Samantha and Xante and another student, George Jerro, placed plastic bags
filled with vegetables on their makeshift produce stand.
A few minutes later
they walked over to the retirement home, where seniors were waiting in anticipation
of their arrival.
Nancy Riley, 90, answered her door with a broad smile
and accepted her vegetable booty from Luis.
"Oh, this is making me
real happy," she said, peering into her heavy sack. "I don't get out
to the store too much, so this is great."
Back at the farm, seniors
who are more mobile started to line up for their veggies and sing the praises
of the Soil Born produce.
They talked about making cabbage soup and zucchini
dishes, and they gaped at the long, purple beans inside their bags.
"Thank
you, thank you, thank you!" they said, one after the other.
Xante Mitchell
nodded and smiled.
