Eastside Memorial High School

The goal of our garden project is to link students with their physical and natural world, and promote food security and environmental education. We want to beautify our garden grounds and make it inviting for Eastside students as a productive garden and outdoor learning space.

Our garden serves as a place for students and community members to experience a beautiful outdoor area without travelling a long distance. We want to address the disconnect from nature that we observe in our students. Our students are urban and have limited access to transportation to natural areas. When being first introduced to the garden, many students have asked if the food from the garden is edible and have an unclear idea of how food gets to their plate. Although anxious at first, they enjoy being outside, getting dirty, and handling all the critters they find as they learn how nature provides for them. We want to transform our garden to a place that people feel invited to reflect and relax as well as be nourished. The grant will provide for structural features such as benches, and scaffolding to house viney vegetables. These will provide a place to catch their eye and relax their mind. It will complement our monthly efforts at providing transportation to the nearby state and local parks. The garden provides opportunities for our urban students to work cooperatively, and has beautified an otherwise empty, grassy space.

As a Title 1 school, food security is a major issue with our students (discussed further below), an issue that this improved garden will help ameliorate. Through Green Teens and some core classes, students learn about where food comes from, how it is grown, how enjoyable eating fresh fruits and vegetables can be, and the importance of local food production for the health and well-being of themselves, their families and community, and the environment. According to the Sustainable Food Center, school gardens empower individuals to meet their basic food needs; encourage the sharing and consumption of fresh produce with family, friends, neighbors, and food pantries; increase preferences for healthy foods; and enhance environmental appreciation (http://www.sustainablefoodcenter.org/). The garden produce will be used to share with the volunteers and participants, which currently includes teachers, custodians, students and visitors from the community.

We plan to add benches and build an outdoor whiteboard to create an outdoor classroom that produces food, reduces waste through composting, collects rainwater, and cycles nutrients. At Eastside, we imagine building an outdoor classroom that is useful across multiple content areas and provides opportunities for students to apply critical thinking skills to create environmental solutions. We integrate the garden into our Independent Studies in English, Algebra, Geometry, Environmental Science, Art and Health classes. We hope this integration will help increase academic performance by providing more practical and hands on work for the students, and improve social behavior as working outside can reduce stress.