Harvesting Knowledge: Growing Food, Community, and Climate Awareness This School Year

School is back in session, and we couldn’t be more thrilled! This summer, we piloted several new initiatives, including Storytime in the Garden, a guest chef series in the kitchen, processing food from the garden, and more.

Our first event of the school year was a potato harvest—during their lunch break, 99 students gathered a total of 75.7 pounds of potatoes! It was a fun way to kick off the year, with students getting their hands dirty and learning how to harvest. The experience was especially meaningful for some of the 7th graders, who had planted the potatoes last year as 6th graders. One remarked, “These potatoes are like my babies, and they’re all grown up now!” We love a full circle moment.

This year, we are prioritizing food knowledge, sense of belonging, and climate literacy as the pillars of our work. These explicitly connect to our already established values of nourishment, community, and stewardship, and everything we offer in our program is aligned with one or more of these concepts.  For example: 

• Our 6th grade lesson series this year focuses on the integration of the garden and kitchen, with explicit instruction on how to grow, prepare, and share food (food knowledge).  
• Our 7th grade lesson series focuses on food waste diversion, with an emphasis on eating seasonally and locally, purchasing and using our food consciously, and composting our scraps as ways to mitigate climate change (climate literacy).  
• Our 8th grade lesson series is an exciting pilot with the Executive Chef of Berkeley Unified to highlight culturally significant dishes during specific cultural heritage months, integrating seasonal and local produce. We will explore the ways food connects and shapes us, and ways we can celebrate who we are through food (sense of belonging). 

Stay tuned for more updates as the year goes on.  Wishing you a joyful school year full of wonder, curiosity, and connection!

Photo by Dan Jung