The Edible Schoolyard at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California serves as the Edible Schoolyard Project's demonstration site and innovation hub. We have been gardening and cooking with sixth, seventh, and eighth graders – and working closely with the school community – since 1995.
Long story short, we've learned a lot along the way. That's why all of our work, and the reasoning behind it, is posted online and shared in our Edible Schoolyard training programs.
In the Edible Schoolyard, students are farmers, cooks, learners, and teachers. In the kitchen classroom, our chef teachers are guides to the exploration of how culture and identity shape our personal relationship and access to food. Students, teachers, and community volunteers gather around the table to share meals and conversation. In the garden classroom, students are the keepers of the soil and shepherds of the harvest. They sow seeds and tend to the produce that fills bellies and fuels creativity, imagination, and learning.
The Edible Schoolyard program is fully integrated into the fabric of the school and the academic experience of every student. Over their three years at Martin Luther King, Jr Middle School, a student will have 60 classes in the program. Students come to the garden with their science teacher and to the kitchen with their humanities teacher.
Our teaching staff designs our lessons in close collaboration with King Middle School's science and humanities teachers. This helps us make intentional academic connections that allow a student’s full learning experience at school to become more relevant and engaging.
Even more broadly, the Edible Schoolyard Berkeley's curriculum aims to develop curious, engaged learners who demonstrate:
Our pedagogy, practices, and approach to curriculum development help us achieve these goals.
