On May 13, Mayor Bloomberg and Rachael Ray visited PS 29's garden to announce a public-private partnership to help develop school garden and nutrition education programs in New York's public schools. As Council Speaker Christine Quinn emphasized, "teaching children about healthy eating and where our food comes from is just as valuable as teaching them how to read and write."
Growing up on a dairy farm in Connecticut, I knew exactly where my food came from, whether I wanted to or not. Feeding calves, raising sheep, planting and harvesting vegetables for dinner are major components of my childhood memories. With this background in mind, unexpectedly some of the most eye-opening experiences I had during college occurred in kitchens.
For example, the time my roommate asked me to show her how to crack an egg, or when one of my close friends showed up with bok choy when he had been sent to the store to buy cabbage (the Western relative). Being competent in reading and writing is important, but so are the food choices we make at least three times a day, every day. If you do not know how to crack an egg or identify the right vegetables for a recipe, what foods are left to choose from?
So here I am, idealism and all, volunteering my passion for a year as a Food and Farming Initiative AmeriCorps Vista at PS 29. Our "farm" consists of four rectangular raised beds in one corner of the schools' blacktop play-yard, along with a handful of planters. While my father finds humor in our use of the word "farm", I am amazed at how productive our garden has been. Just a few weeks ago for example, 2nd graders harvested enough lettuce to supply our salad bar to accompany the following day's school lunch.
As one student put it, "it's so amazing that there's over 25 kids in this school that you have to feed" (in fact it's just over 600). Going beyond the actual harvest, our school garden is about seeing science in action through real worms and insects, watching a seed grow into a plant, learning about seasonality and realizing that not everything can grow in our climate, and of course the writing and art opportunities are endless.
Building and maintaining a school garden is no easy feat, and plants do not work on the 5-days a week, 8am to 4pm schedule. While there is a lot of interest in creating permanent school garden coordinator positions, community support (both from within and outside) can and have done wonders for many of the active school gardens I've had the opportunity to visit (including PS 29's).
What I find exciting about Mayor Bloomberg and Rachael Ray's partnership is the additional support and interest in a movement that is growing across the City. As another 2nd grader shared with us, "I like smelling the stuff in the garden and seeing the little bugs crawling in the plants. I love the garden outside in the school. I also like that the food in the garden goes in the cafeteria."
For more information about the public-private partnership, visit the Office of the Mayor's website or Rachael Ray's non-profit organization, Yum-O.
