Edible Schoolyard Kern County

The Edible Schoolyard Kern County is a program supported through the Grimm Family Education Foundation. The Foundation is a non-profit, based in Bakersfield, California. Working with students, teachers and parents, the Foundation supports initiatives to improve education and wellness in Kern County. The mission of the Foundation is: Through our charter schools and Edible Schoolyards, we will close the achievement gap, graduating students at or above grade level in literacy and math, improve the health of students and families and create economic impact in the communities that we serve.

Modeled after the pioneering work of Alice Waters and the Edible Schoolyard Project in Berkeley, California, the Foundation created the Edible Schoolyard Kern County (ESYKC) Program to encourage children in their discovery and development of a healthy relationship with the food they eat.  We currently have two Edible Schoolyard Kern County locations: Bakersfield and Arvin. We are happy to announce our plans to expand to Shafter, California, in the 2017-2018 school year. 

Our Mission is to create and sustain an organic garden and learning kitchen, integrated into the school's curriculum and culture. Our hands-on garden and kitchen lessons teach students the values of environmental stewardship, seasonality, personal expression, active learning, collaboration and cooperations, and nourishment of self, family and community. 

Buena Vista Edible Schoolyard (BVESY) is the first program we founded in Kern County. BVESY is located on an acre of land across from Buena Vista Elementary. Since 2011, we have been serving outdoor and indoor food education to 1,000 students, as well as hosting a bounty of related community events.

The Grimmway Academy Edible Schoolyard is on campus at Grimmway Academy charter school in Arvin, and was started in 2012. As part of the school’s innovative blended learning model, all 700 students, K-6th, rotate through the garden and kitchen classrooms, in the same manner as core academic classes.