Environmental Charter School

The ECS Edible Schoolyard's (ESY) mission is to build connections with students, families, and the larger community through garden and kitchen experiences that foster compassionate citizens who feel empowered to make healthy food choices for themselves and increase access to healthy food for others. ECS values the whole child and honors students’ mind, body, and spirit through its holistic approach to education.

We envision the ECS ESY to:

• Bring math, literacy, science, and humanities skills to life
• Support the social-emotional, relational, and cognitive needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students
• Build student voice and engagement
• Create a healing and emancipatory garden space through culturally responsive practices
• Highlight chefs, famers, and food justice activists from diverse backgrounds
• Become a lab school in the local region that showcases the impact of edible education on the well-being of students and their communities

Next year, a full-time specialist will teach weekly ESY classes to our K-5 students, 598 total students. K-1 will have an inquiry, playful, and sensory approach to food experiences. In 2-5, students will have full garden and kitchen classes that are modeled after curriculum/program from ESY New York, ESY Berkeley, and Grow Pittsburgh.